The challenges facing employers who sponsor postretirement benefit plans are great. Among public employers, these types of plans are called OPEB or Other Postemployment Benefit Plans and cover most benefits payable after retirement, other than pensions.  These plans generally provide medical benefits to retired employees, but may include other postretirement benefits, such as life insurance. Like pension benefits, these plans represent a promise to employees and a resulting liability to employers. Unlike pensions, these plans are rarely funded properly on an actuarial basis, resulting in substantial unfunded liabilities.

We have been working with postretirement benefits plan since the early 1990’s when Financial Accounting Standards began to require corporations to reflect the value of these liabilities on their financial statements.

Our decades of experience with postretirement medical plans, combined with our expertise with public employers, uniquely qualifies us to perform actuarial valuations for counties, authorities, municipalities, corporations and non-profit organizations that sponsor postretirement benefit plans.  We have helped our clients with the implementation of Government Accounting Boards Standard No. 45, which governs the financial disclosures of OPEB liabilities. Understanding the magnitude of these liabilities and their effect on their financial statements has helped employers to make better informed decisions about the granting of these benefits and their financing.