In this article, published in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans’ (IFEBP’s) Benefits Magazine, Carmen Gatta takes a deep dive into the power of multi-factor baseline mortality modeling for pension plans in the US. Mortality is the most important demographic assumption for pension plans, but traditional actuarial approaches often fail to make allowances for the characteristics of the populations they are modeling. With modern techniques, we can now fully allow for the underlying characteristics of a pension plan’s participants.