- Challenges remain for corporate pension plans: "Persistently low long-term interest rates, the recent weakness in financial asset prices, and the multi-year nature of pension accounting rules and funding requirements mean that many challenges remain for corporate DB pension plans and their sponsors. Our updated pension palpitation screens help to identify companies exposed to pensionrelated issues."
- De-risking by corporate plans continues: "Plan sponsors continued to shift asset allocation away from equities and towards fixed income in 2009. We expect this trend to continue as sponsors endeavor to better match plan assets with plan liabilities."
- Significant reforms on the horizon: "The latest round of temporary funding reform efforts in Congress appears to be reaching a conclusion. Reforms to the income statement recognition of pension expense that would reduce smoothing have been proposed by the IASB and may ultimately work their way into US GAAP. This may be the most significant reform effort from a plan sponsor perspective given the increased volatility to reported results."
- Retiree health care benefits going, going, …: "The recently passed health care legislation will likely accelerate the trend of companies reducing or eliminating this benefit for current and future retirees. This would continue a trend that has been in place for several decades."
GoldmanSachs Pension Review 2010 20100611
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