Justices Told to Put Guardrails on Pension Actuary Discretion

The US Supreme Court should limit pension actuaries’ discretion when calculating the money owed by withdrawing companies, according to a series of amicus briefs emphasizing the need to give employers predictability and guard against unfair manipulation.

The briefs, filed Thursday, come in a case asking the justices to resolve a circuit split over the interest rate assumptions used to calculate pension fund withdrawal liability. Small changes in these assumptions can cause big swings in an employer’s liability, and federal circuit courts disagree about when the assumptions must be in place before they can be used to calculate a company’s bill. ...