young woman half face, old woman half face

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

Last Spring, SOA released an exposure draft of its Private Retirement Plans Mortality Tables, or PRI-2012, as the tables are dubbed.

The finalized report and tables have no material changes from the exposure draft. The life expectancy of a 65-year-old woman is 87.4 years, unchanged from the previous mortality tables issued in the RP-2006 tables, which were released in 2014.

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

If sponsors choose to incorporate the updated tables—they are not obligated to—they would likely only see a small change in liabilities, typically between 1 and negative 1 percent, according to SOA.

How much of an impact the new tables have will depend on other factors, like a plan's specific demographics, balance of blue and white-collar workers, and the discount rate used to determine liabilities.

The life expectancy of blue-collar men dropped a bit, from 84.3 to 84.1 years. Among white-collar men, life expectancy dropped from 86.7 to 85.9, the most precipitous decrease among blue and white-collar job type and gender.

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

That angle is new to SOA's tables; previous tables included limited data from multiemployer plans, narrowing insight on how or whether mortality was impacting the assessment of multiemployer plan liabilities.

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

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

Instant Insights /

Finalized updates to mortality tables should have minimum impact on most pensions' liabilities

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