Pension Protection Act Regulatory Updates and Their Effects on Liability Driven Investment Strategies

When the Pension Protection Act (PPA) was released in 2006, the general thrust for defined benefit retirement plans was to require more stringent funding requirements with less flexibility in setting the assumptions used to calculate plan contributions.  The new regulations also created many questions on various implementation approaches and calculations.  Yet, when PPA became effective for pension plan years beginning in 2008, many of these questions were left unanswered.