Spotlight on pensions

Pensions represent a significant financial burden for many companies and a critical source of retirement income for employees. Accordingly, it is important that corporate financial statements transparently present information about the financial health and consequences of pension plans. Numerous cri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business horizons 2008-03, Vol.51 (2), p.105-111
Main Author: Maines, Laureen A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accounting
Corporate management
Financial reporting
Financial statements
Pensions
Perceptions
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pensions represent a significant financial burden for many companies and a critical source of retirement income for employees. Accordingly, it is important that corporate financial statements transparently present information about the financial health and consequences of pension plans. Numerous criticisms have been levied at financial reporting for pensions, leading to a recent project to revise pension accounting. This article discusses implications of changes to pensions accounting for financial statement users and corporate managers. In general, research suggests that likely changes in pension accounting could increase financial statement users' perceptions of companies' pension burden and risk. In turn, these perceptions could affect corporate managers' decisions with respect to pension commitments and investments.
ISSN:0007-6813
1873-6068
DOI:10.1016/j.bushor.2007.11.001