Inactive Data - pension modes
This portion of the Census Specifications describes the database fields involved in the valuation of inactive participants (members). You must complete these parameters if the database field identifying status has any statuses mapped to ProVal’s inactive statuses under the Status Code Mappings topic, even if your database contains no records with a status mapped to a ProVal inactive status.
In the pension modes (with the exception of vested members valued as active), an inactive participant’s benefits are contained in database fields, not determined according to the Plan Definition, as it is for actives. Note that only those database fields that are unhidden in the current Project appear in the drop-down lists for selection for parameters of this topic (including parameters that define an Inactive Benefit, whether in U.K. or other pension modes).
Date of birth (or attained age) is the field used to determine the age of the primary annuitant corresponding to each inactive record. This parameter can specify a date field or a numeric field containing age on the valuation date.
If a date field is specified, ProVal will compute, based upon that date, an exact attained age for determining benefit eligibility and a rounded attained age for age-based reference table lookups.
If an age field is specified, ProVal will round the attained age for age-based table lookups.
Note that age for table lookups is always a whole (not fractional) number.
Date of decrement (or decrement age) is the field that indicates, for each inactive record, when the decrement from active status actually occurred. This parameter can specify a date field or a numeric field containing age on the (termination or other) decrement date. This field must indicate a decrement date no later than the Valuation Date and must be included on the database when either a mortality table of the “age by duration from decrement” type is referenced or valuation assumptions apply an advanced COLA expression that uses #DECYEAR or #DECAGE operators to any Inactive Benefit. In the U.K. pension mode, this field indicates the member's age at the date of decrement for revaluation purposes and the application of select-and-ultimate mortality; thus it must be included on the database.
In German mode, Date of commencement (or comm. age) is the field that indicates, for each inactive record, when commencement occurred. This parameter can specify a date field or a numeric field containing age on the commencement date. This field must be included if there is COLA assumption that applies to inactive benefits which occurs every X years, and the first increase is either a) X years after date of commencement, or b) starts at a date with the first increase reduced if it occurs less than X years from date of commencement. This field must indicate a commencement date no later than the day after the Valuation Date.
Sex (or percent male) specifies the database field indicating the sex of the primary annuitant. This may be a coded field, with codes for male and female, or a numeric field containing the fraction of males assumed for each record. In the latter case, the field should be a numeric field with a value between 0 (all female) and 1 (all male), inclusive. The most common use for a percent male field is with grouped data. Note that ProVal’s Group Data utility will create this field and call it PctMale.
Male specifies the entry in the sex field (if of coded type) that indicates a male participant. Female specifies the entry in the sex field (if of coded type) that indicates a female participant.
Inactive Benefit Definitions lists all of the Inactive Benefit Definitions that have already been identified as a part of this Census Specifications set. The Modified column shows the date of the most recent modification to the library entry. To edit an existing Inactive Benefit Definition or to omit it from the Census Specifications, double-click the library entry or select the entry and click the Edit button. To create a new Inactive Benefit Definition, click the New button. To add or omit several Inactive Benefit Definitions at a time, click the Add button, which leads you to a list of Inactive Benefit Definitions unhidden in the current Project. Check off any Inactive Benefit Definitions to include in the plan and uncheck any Inactive Benefit Definitions you wish to omit from the plan. To value inactive benefits only for records with specific database codes, click the Map button and check to value inactive benefits only for mapped database codes. Next, select a coded database field and then check which inactive benefits pertain to each coded field. See Inactive Benefit Definitions - pension modes except U.K. and Inactive Benefit Definitions - U.K. pension mode for more information.
The remaining parameters of the Inactive Data topic do not apply to German mode.
In the U.K. pension mode, specify, for Member Data at termination, the Guaranteed Minimum Pension at termination attributable to Pre-1988 service and Post-1988 service, respectively, in the Pre-88 GMP at termination and Post-88 GMP at termination numeric fields. (The amounts entered should be increased to the termination date.) If GMPs apply to multiple pre-1997 benefits, the GMP at termination will be split automatically, proportionately to the GMP at the valuation date, which ProVal allows you to specify in the Inactive Benefit Definitions.
If any Inactive Benefits have been entered that depend on the existence of a beneficiary, then fields requesting information about the beneficiary (Beneficiary Data) will become accessible.
Beneficiary date of birth (or attained age) is the field used to determine the age of the beneficiary. This parameter can specify a date field or a numeric field.
Beneficiary sex (or percent male) specifies the database field indicating the sex of the beneficiary. This may be a coded field, with codes for male and female, or a numeric field containing the fraction of males assumed for each record. In the latter case, the field should be a numeric field with a value between 0 (all female) and 1 (all male), inclusive. The most common use for a percent male field is with grouped data. Note that ProVal’s Group Data utility will create this field and call it CAPctMale.
Male specifies the entry in the sex field (if of coded type) that indicates a male beneficiary. Female specifies the entry in the sex field (if of coded type) that indicates a female beneficiary.
In German mode, check if There are covered orphans on the census data. If so, specify the coded database Orphan field and select the code indicating orphan records. Then, specify the numeric database field containing the Orphan normal age. In Valuations and Core Projections, funding results will apply a temporary mask to stop orphan benefits at the Orphan normal age, not greater than age 25. For orphans over the orphan normal age, but not yet 25, a 1 year temporary period will be applied.
In German mode, users can check the Use Individual Method if date of birth available box to apply the Individual Method to every member with spouse data in the database field specified under Date of birth (or attained age). The Individual Method will not be applied to records with a blank value in that database field, even if the box is checked. For all members to whom the Individual Method does apply, ProVal will perform the following modifications: