QUESTION#1: My plan includes a past service benefit equal to the benefit accrued under the prior plan for service up to the effective date of the new plan, 1/1/1989, based on final average pay (5 highest consecutive of last 10) at the time of decrement from active status. My database contains, for each active record, a field, PSvcPct, which is the accumulated percentage of pay (1.5% per year of service since hire) up to 1/1/1989. How can I use this data field in the past service benefit coding?

ANSWER: Use an Accrual Definition type of Benefit Formula Component with a Final Average format. Code the Basis Formula and the Accrual Rates as follows:

Accrual Basis	(5 #FAS 10 * PSvcPct) * (1 #DIV SvcThru1988)
Accrual Rates	1; with New Rates of 0 effective 1/1/1989; select the hire date field as Benefit Service Field,

where PSvcPct and SvcThru1988 are Accrual Basis Components of the Database Field type, containing the accumulated percentage of pay up to 1/1/1989 and total past service (from hire through 12/31/1988), respectively.

Note: If total past service is not already computed and contained in a database field, you may compute it in the Expression box of the SvcThru1988 component as, for example, (1/1/1989 #YEARDIF HireDate) #MAX 0, where HireDate is the database field containing the date of hire.

QUESTION#2: My plan has a past service benefit equal to the accrued benefit under the prior plan as of the effective date of the new plan, 1/1/1989, multiplied by the ratio of final average pay (5 highest consecutive of last 10) at the time of decrement to the final average pay as of 1/1/1989. How do I code this?

ANSWER: This is similar to Question #1, because the past service benefit is based on frozen service and final average pay moving forward to the decrement date, but the database (presumably) contains at least the frozen past service benefit amount and perhaps the frozen final average pay amount (instead of the accumulated percentage of pay resulting from past service).

Express the past service benefit in the benefit formula of the Benefit Definition as:

FrozenBft * FAS #DIV FrozenPay, where the Benefit Formula Components are:

FrozenPay	Database Field type with underlying data field containing frozen pay, or Accrual Definition type, Basis Only, Basis = 5 #FAS 10 custom operator with frozen Year
FrozenBft	Database Field type; underlying data field contains past service benefit based on FrozenPay
FAS	Accrual Definition type, Basis Only, Basis = 5 #FAS 10.

See also the FAQ regarding the related situation of prorating frozen benefits over the period of past service.