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