Pension Protection Act of 2006
What Do We Know about What We Did to Defined Benefit Plans?
Bill Thomas, Alex Brill
October 10, 2007
  • Print
  • Download

Online registration for this event is closed. Walk-in registrations will be accepted.

In August 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), legislation intended to improve the funding of defined-benefit pension plans, improve the measurement of assets and liabilities, and require plan sponsors to face stricter requirements regarding their funding targets. The old rules were incredibly complex, but the new rules are best described as complex in new and different ways.

Speakers at this conference will examine the effects of the recent legislative changes. They will also focus on the tools necessary and available for analyzing legislative changes and for analyzing the risks posed by the current system. Those risks affect employees, employers, and--importantly--taxpayers, who insure these plans through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

Mark Warshawsky, director of retirement research at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, will discuss the changes enacted in PPA and present results from his firm’s proprietary model on the likely effects of the new law on a typical pension plan. David Gustafson, director of policy, research, and analysis at the PBGC, and Alex Brill, a research fellow at AEI, will discuss these results and other approaches for analyzing the consequences of reforms to the defined-benefit pension system.

About the Author

 

Bill
Thomas
  • Bill Thomas, a former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1978 to 2007. During his six-year chairmanship, he guided the enactment of $2 trillion in tax relief, including the Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001, which reduced all ordinary income tax rates; the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act of 2003, which reduced the tax rate on dividends and capital gains; and the Job Creation Act of 2004, which provided significant reforms for corporate tax policy.
  • Phone: 2028625830
    Email: bill.thomas@aei.org
Show More

 

Alex
Brill
  • Alex Brill, a former policy director and chief economist of the House Ways and Means Committee, also served on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). In Congress and at the CEA, Mr. Brill worked on a variety of economic and legislative policy issues, including dividend taxation, the alternative minimum tax, international tax policy, social security reform, defined benefit pension reform, and U.S. trade policy.

    At AEI, Mr. Brill studies the impact of tax policy in the U.S. economy; the fiscal, economic, and political consequences of stimulus legislation; health care reform, pharmaceutical spending, unemployment insurance reform; and financial innovation and technology.
  • Phone: 202-862-5931
    Email: alex.brill@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Chad Hill
    Phone: 202-862-5862
    Email: chad.hill@aei.org
Show More | See Full Profile
AEI on Facebook