The New Pension Law and Defined Benefit Plans: A Surprisingly Good Match

Much of the commentary on the new pension reform law suggests that it will be deleterious to defined benefit plans. We describe the economic policy background leading to the new law, the law’s main funding provisions, and analyze the volatility of required minimum contributions, leading us to the opposite conclusion. The new law should improve benefit security, reduce contribution volatility, and encourage responsible management and creative plan design, thereby improving the environment in which defined benefit plans are sponsored by employers and retirement benefits are earned by workers.