Experts Track Continuing Evolution of U.S. Pension System

The Employee Benefit Research Institute's spring 2007 policy forum, held in Washington, DC, focused on how retirement plan sponsors are reacting to and dealing with major developments in the pension world: Enactment of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006, which imposed new funding rules on pension plans (among other things), and major new accounting rules issued by the private-sector Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the public-sector Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). This paper recaps the experts' reactions -- at EBRI's spring 2007 policy forum -- to these major developments. Change has been a near-constant in the U.S. pension system, the experts noted. One theme emerged at the policy forum: New accounting rules -- rather than new pension funding laws by Congress -- may be the determining factor that triggers the next big shake-up in pension coverage.