CFA Level 3

I passed the CFA Level III exam in June. I've already had my experience verified and approved, so I should get the CFA charter in the next batch in September.

Pension Protection Act

President Bush today signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 ("PPA") into law. Big changes to pension funding, effective 1/1/2008. Probably the biggest change to pension law since the passing of ERISA in 1974.

Edited to add link to a PPA blog
http://qualifiedpensionconsulting.com/ppablog/

IBM Decision Overturned

A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago yesterday ruled IBM did not discriminate against its older employees in 1999 when it converted its pension plan to cash balance. The decision reverses a 2003 federal court ruling that the change discriminated against older workers. The decision also saves IBM from having to pay up to $1.4 billion to 140,000 older employees and retirees who were affected by the conversion. In its ruling, the appeals court acknowledged that older workers were correct in perceiving "that they were worse off under the cash balance approach" than the defined benefit approach, but "removing a feature that gave extra benefits to the old differs from discriminating against them." The plaintiffs intend to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling.

Maybe if this decision had come down in 2003 IBM wouldn't have frozen their plan.