2016-04-27 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Future Accounting Standard Changes - Continued In addition, this Statement details the recognition and disclosure requirements for employers with payables to defined benefit OPEB plans that are administered through trusts that meet the specified criteria and for employers whose employees are provided with defined contribution OPEB. This Statement also addresses certain circumstances in which a nonemployer entity provides financial support for OPEB of employees of another entity. In this Statement, distinctions are made regarding the particular requirements depending upon whether the OPEB plans through which the benefits are provided are administered through trusts that meet the following criteria: • Contributions from employers and nonemployer contributing entities to the OPEB plan and earnings on those contributions are irrevocable. • OPEB plan assets are dedicated to providing OPEB to plan members in accordance with the benefit terms. OPEB plan assets are legally protected from the creditors of employers, nonemployer contributing entities, the OPEB plan administrator, and the plan members. Effective Date This Statement is effective for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2017. Earlier application is encouraged. How the Changes in This Statement Will Improve Financial Reporting The requirements of this Statement will improve the decision -usefulness of information in employer and governmental nonemployer contributing entity financial reports and will enhance its value for assessing accountability and interperiod equity by requiring recognition of the entire OPEB liability and a more comprehensive measure of OPEB expense. Decision -usefulness and accountability also will be enhanced through new note disclosures and required supplementary information, as follows: • More robust disclosures of assumptions will allow for better informed assessments of the reasonableness of OPEB measurements. • Explanations of how and why the OPEB liability changed from year to year will improve transparency. • The summary OPEB liability information, including ratios, will offer an indication of the extent to which the total OPEB liability is covered by resources held by the OPEB plan, if any. • For employers that provide benefits through OPEB plans that are administered through trusts that meet the specified criteria, the contribution schedules will provide measures to evaluate decisions related to contributions. The consistency, comparability, and transparency of the information reported by employers and governmental nonemployer contributing entities about OPEB transactions will be improved by requiring: • The use of a discount rate that considers the availability of the OPEB plan's fiduciary net position associated with the OPEB of current active and inactive employees and the investment horizon of those resources, rather than utilizing only the long-term expected rate of return regardless of whether the OPEB plan's fiduciary net position is projected to be sufficient to make projected benefit payments and is expected to be invested using a strategy to achieve that return. • A single method of attributing the actuarial present value of projected benefit payments to periods of employee service, rather than allowing a choice among six methods with additional variations. • Immediate recognition in OPEB expense, rather than a choice of recognition periods, of the effects of changes of benefit terms. • Recognition of OPEB expense that incorporates deferred outflows of resources and deferred inflows of resources related to OPEB over a defined, closed period, rather than a choice between an open or closed period. -18-