In addition to pension valuations, you may know about calculations for other Other Postemployment Benefit obligations (or "OPEB") by the name of the accounting statements that require their determination:

• FASB ASC 965 (which includes former SOP 92-6/01-2)
• FASB ASC 715-60 (which includes former FAS 106) and/or
• GASB 43/45.

To be compliant, calculations must conform to certain guidelines prescribed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification (FASB ASC) or the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). In addition, these calculations must meet criteria set forth by the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB). Valuing postemployment benefit obligations dictates expertise in both pension and health and welfare benefits as the prescribed standards call for calculations that are much more complex than those generally performed for health and welfare plans; they also require elements outside the scope of pension valuations. Because Rael & Letson staffs both pension and health actuaries, we are well qualified to perform these calculations. We work together as a team to fully identify the plan's benefits structure and administration, set actuarial assumptions, and perform peer review. Our reports typically include:

• the Plan's postemployment benefit obligations for the current and prior years, broken out into the three participant groups: retirees, fully eligible actives and actives not yet eligible;
• the effect to the obligation if the healthcare cost and operating expense trend rates were increased by 1%;
• a description of the demographic, economic and per capita claims assumptions used in our calculations;
• a summary of participant data used in the valuation;
• a summary of the principal Plan provisions; and
• notes to the auditor describing plan changes, changes in assumptions and any unique Plan elements.