Pension (Governmental) Library Update 2025.03: Advanced COLA capabilities for Retirees, single Benefit Definition covering both “Actives and Vested Terminated” records, Social Security PIA enhancements and more

Enhancements

The library model has several enhancements that provide additional options and features:

  • Advanced COLA limits for retirees
  • Single Benefit Definition covering both Active and Vested Terminated
  • Parameterization of Social Security PIA benefits for each benefit formula
  • Additional details of annuity payment form factors in workbook “Pension Trace Life Retirees”
  • Additional option to use a specified model point field as a source for:
    • Account balance at the valuation date for retiree benefits with an annuity payment form with a Modified Cash Refund feature
    • COLA anniversary date
    • Payment form for Active and Vested Terminated records

Advanced COLA Limits for retirees

The library model now comes pre-configured with a way to develop Cost of Living Adjustment formulas that are more complex than a simple rate increase for retirees in addition to Active and Vested Terminated. An example would be a limit of cumulative COLA to less than 2.5 times the benefit amount at retirement. See this support article for more details.

Single Benefit Definition can now cover “Active and Vested Terminated”

In the table structure “Benefit Definitions Not Yet in Payment”, the column “Active or Terminated Vested” now has a 3rd option “Active and Vested Terminated”. If this option is selected, both active and vested terminated records will be eligible for the particular benefit definition. This eases the maintenance of the model by reducing the number of configured benefit definitions for each plan. See this support article for more details.

Robust Social Security Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) for separate benefit formulas 

Parametrization of multiple Social Security PIA benefits is now included in the library model via a new column “Social Security Benefit” in table structure “Benefit Formula Table References Not Yet in Pay”. For each benefit formula, the column selects the Social Security parameters by referencing a data table from table structure “Social Security Benefit”.

A new benefit formula component “Social Security PIA at computation age *  Early Retirement * Inflation” can now be used within product variable “01 Benefit Formula Amount Annual – Actives and VTs”

Workbook “Pension Trace Life Retirees” has been modified to include details of annuity payment form factors.

The workbook has been enhanced to provide additional information around payment form factors for retiree annuities.

Retiree benefits with an annuity payment form with a Modified Cash Refund feature can now reference a model point field as the source for the account balance at the projection start date 

A new column “Account Value Data field override” has been added to the table structure “Retiree Guarantee Period”. The column is used to select a model point field which reports the amount of the current account balance when calculating the guarantee period of an annuity with a Modified Cash Refund feature.

Additional option to apply COLAs on the anniversary specified by a selected model point data field 

An additional option to apply COLAs on the anniversary of a specified date variable from the model point fields is now available within table structures “Benefit Definition – Payment Form” and “Retiree COLA Increase Details”. See this support article for more details.

Additional option to select the payment form for Active and Vested Terminated records using a model point field 

Users can now select the payment form for Active and Vested Terminated records by referencing a specified model point field. The selected model point field is configured in a new column “ModelPoint Field that varies Annuity Form” in table structure “Benefit Definition – Payment Form”. See this support article for more details. See this support article for more details.

Changes and Fixes

  • Product Variable “Time of First Funding Age” has been modified to correct certain situations where it was not returning the first anniversary of the valuation date subsequent to hire.
  • Product Variable “Array Reference Retirement Latest” has been modified to return the first day of the valuation year in which 100% retirement rate is assumed, but only for active records.
  • The product variable “Compensation Participant from Entry Age” has been modified to correct for certain situations where it was not recognizing parameters from data table structure “Compensation History Parameters”.
  • The product variable “Decrement Array Start” has been modified to address certain configurations where errors were returned for retired and nonvalued records.
  • The product variables “Decrement Array End” and “Decrement Array Step” have been modified to address certain configurations where errors were produced with middle of year decrement timing.
  • Added a default source for the “PV Factor – Interest Discount” variable to fetch the discount rate from Valuation Assumptions table rather than returning an error.
  • Revised product variable  “Entry Age – PVB at Entry Total” variable to include one half year of interest discounting when calculating participant contributions
  • Revised product variable  “EA Level Pct Pay 05 – Compensation Monthly Stream” to correctly calculate valuation year pay for mid year decrement timing

March 2025: Personal API Tokens, Usability and Navigation Enhancements

New

Personal API Tokens

Users with API access now have the ability to create Personal API tokens in addition to Workspace API tokens

Personal API tokens are generated at the user level and impersonate the access of the user who creates them. This includes the system roles/permissions and individual model permissions.

Workspace API tokens give users access to call any endpoint for any model in the workspace, regardless of the user’s individual permissions in the platform.

You can generate and access API tokens by selecting the user icon (👤) in the top right of the application, then selecting “Administration”.  See this support article for more information.

Enhancements

API Enhancements

  • The GetProjectionDetails endpoint now includes the Model ID and Scenario Table ID
  • The GetFileUploadUrl endpoint now includes an optional “Content-Type” parameter

Copy Link to Variable

You can now quickly get a direct link to a variable in your model by hovering near the “Variable Properties & Documentation” header next to the variable name

Error Indicators on Product and Portfolio List

If a product or portfolio contains a variable with an error, we show an error icon next to that product or portfolio in the list. This can help quickly identify entities in the model that need review.

Enhanced Configuration When Converting Variable to Model Point Field

When converting a variable to a Model Point Field, you can now set the Aliases, Default Value, and Required fields all in one window.

Additional Projection Details

You can now see the Projection name and completed time for a run in the header of the Projection Details

Other Enhancements

  • The “Set Tables to Latest Version” setting when duplicating projections now applies to Scenario tables in addition to data tables
  • You can now select the folder for a model upon model creation

Fixes

  • HPM projections no longer fail to complete when the projection contains zero model points
  • Economic Scenario Generator can now retrieve the 2025 US Treasury rates
  • We are again showing the difference in the Compare view for company variables when the variable uses a static array and a single formula for all array values