Earnings estimates getting real; Wall Street firms are developing mark-to-market techniques.

Pensions & Investments, September, 2005 by Calio, Vince

Byline: Vince Calio NEW YORK - Wall Street firms might be beating the Financial Accounting Standards Board to the punch in implementing mark-to-market pension accounting. The equity research desks of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs & Co. are developing techniques to estimate the actual earnings - as opposed to the smoothed earnings - of pension plans of the companies they cover, according to money managers familiar with both firms.

The move would follow in the footsteps of Bear Stearns & Co. and Standard & Poor's, which in 2003 were the first high-profile companies to begin estimating the actual earnings of companies' pension funds. If enough Wall Street firms follow suit, companies could be forced to pay closer attention to actual funding levels of...

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