Tag Archives: Discount factor

In a Hoover Institution Essay, Joshua Rauh describes the extent to which US states and communities under fund public sector pensions. Even under states’ own disclosures and optimistic assumptions about future investment returns, assets in the pension systems will be insufficient to pay for the pensions of current public employees and retirees. Taxpayer resources will eventually have to make up the difference. Despite the implementation of new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)...

The Economist reports about new accounting standards for insurers. IFRS 17, to come into force in 2021 (in most countries but not in the US), requires insurers to use current discount rates to value cash flows. This corresponds with EU practice. America and parts of Asia allow the use of historical discount rates.