Research Approach
The author outlines the history of pension fund regulation and the alleged consequences of the
accounting rules for pension plans under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and
compares financial statements for a specific company under GAAP accounting and current-value
accounting. The paper also reports on some characteristics of defined benefit (DB) plans at firms
in the Standard and Poor’s 500 index and discusses some recent proposals for pension accounting
reform, including marking to market, more accurate measurement of the pension obligation, and
adoption of risk-based Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums. In an aside, the paper
considers the effect of current pension fund accounting on the measured personal saving rate, compensation,
and unit labor costs. Finally, the study discusses two lessons for pension asset managers:
reassessing the risk of equities and focusing less on asset returns and more on balancing the risks
of pension assets and liabilities.