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Recently finalized morality tables produced by the Society ofActuaries will have only a marginal impact on most pensions'liabilities.

Last Spring, SOA released an exposure draft of its PrivateRetirement Plans Mortality Tables, or PRI-2012, as the tables aredubbed.

The finalized report and tables have no material changes fromthe exposure draft. The life expectancy of a 65-year-old woman is87.4 years, unchanged from the previous mortality tables issued inthe RP-2006 tables, which were released in 2014.

Life expectancy for men, however, dropped from the previoustables. The typical 65-year old man is expected to live to 84.7years, down from 85 in the previous set sponsors could use tofactor pension liabilities.

If sponsors choose to incorporate the updated tables—they arenot obligated to—they would likely only see a small change inliabilities, typically between 1 and negative 1 percent, accordingto SOA.

How much of an impact the new tables have will depend on otherfactors, like a plan's specific demographics, balance of blue andwhite-collar workers, and the discount rate used to determineliabilities.

The life expectancy of blue-collar men dropped a bit, from 84.3to 84.1 years. Among white-collar men, life expectancy dropped from86.7 to 85.9, the most precipitous decrease among blue andwhite-collar job type and gender.

Analysis was drawn from 402 plans, including a substantial dataset from collectively bargained multiemployer plans, whichaccounted for 41 percent of the total data, and 70 percent of thedata on blue-collar workers.

That angle is new to SOA's tables; previous tables includedlimited data from multiemployer plans, narrowing insight on how orwhether mortality was impacting the assessment of multiemployerplan liabilities.

The SOA has pledged to issue new mortality tables every fiveyears, with annual updates.

The 2014 tables were the first issued since 2000. Plan sponsorsand pension experts had expressed concern over the lag, given themore substantial impact on sponsors' contribution requirements, thecost of lump-sum payouts, and the cost of variable rate premiumspaid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.