RP-2000.
The data for this table come from the lives of private sector (i.e., non-government)
employees. Therefore, it should best mimic the experiences of the average worker in private pension
plans. It also includes more blue-collar workers and others in “less-healthy” populations. So it
should more accurately reflect a population-wide average. This table is generationally adjusted
and gender specific. Click here for the RP-2000 female mortality table and here for the RP-2000 male
mortality table.
UP-94.
This stands for “Uninsured Pensioner 1994.” This table is based mostly on the lives of
federal civil servants. It tends to give slightly higher results than RP-2000 and may best reflect
white collar employees. As a result, values may tend to be slightly higher than the RP-2000 values.
This table is generationally-adjusted and gender specific.
GAR-94. This stands for “Group Annuity Reserving 1994.” It uses the GAM-94 (“Group Annuity
Mortality”) table, but is generationally adjusted. The GAM-94 table is identical to the UP-94 table,
except that each mortality number is 93% of the UP-94 table. This gives longer lives, which gives a
higher pension value. Because this was used by insurers to set up reserves, it is thought to be
perhaps on the conservative side (that is, the valuations may be a bit larger than the “more
accurate” projection that RP-2000 or UP-94 would give). This table is generationally-adjusted and
gender specific.
GAM-83.
This is an outdated table and should not be used. We include it only because some
practitioners have not gotten the message and insist on using the same table they have always used.
Because it uses an older mortality table that has not been generationally-adjusted, it tends to give
the smallest valuation results. This table comes in unisex and gender-specific incarnations.
Mortality in the unisex version simply is a half-way point between male and female mortality. For
this table, the unisex version will tend to give a larger value than the gender-specific version for
a male and a smaller value than the gender-specific table for a female.
IRS Rev Rul 2001-62.
This is a unisex table based on GAR-94 table updated only to 2002. It is not
generationally adjusted. We include it because the federal government, more concerned about the
appearance of fairness than about accuracy, has mandated its use in certain situations. If the plan
were to calculate the lump sum it would pay for the pension (which is not necessarily the pension’s
true actuarial value), it may use this method.
