​PUB-2016 Mortality Tables

• Added the newly released PUB-2016 mortality tables (still in exposure draft).
• Changed the procedure to handle monthly updates to the IRS segment rates. New rates are now picked up from the IRS Notice (e.g. Notice 2025-21) instead of from these web sites:
  -- IRS web site for minimum present value segment rates (is not timely updated).
  -- IRS web site for pension plan funding segment rates (is not timely updated).
  -- IRS web site listing segment rate notices (is not timely updated).

Streamlined Data Updates

• The procedure for updating the following items has been completely revamped:
  -- monthly updates to segment rates, treasury rates, yield curve rates, CPI values, etc.
  -- annual updates for Social Security wages base, national average earnings, COLA
  Rather than relying on the user to perform data downloads and “screen scrapes” from various websites, the process is now automated on an EAC computer. The data is contained in an Access database file that is uploaded to the EAC FTP server. In order to get the updates, the user needs to simply a button to download this one file -- no other work is performed on the user's computer. The download occurs very quickly, because the file is only 4.7KB.

Segment Rates

• Added pension plan funding segment rates including associated functions, tables, and charts. Previously the add-in handed only the minimum present value segment rates.

New Functions

• New function CCPIU returns the C-CPI-U All Urban Consumers (chained CPIU).
• New function HighAvg returns the highest value averaged over n-years from an array of values.
• New function SegRateARPA returns the Post-ARP/IIJA adjusted 24-month average segment rate under §430(h)(2).
• New function SegRatePPAMax returns the Post-ARP/IIJA unadjusted 24-month average segment rate under §430(h)(2).
• New function PVJL3 returns the present value of a joint life annuity for three lives (payments stop at the first death). 
• Modified the functions Catchup and Catchup to add an optional age parameter.

More

• Faster Excel start-up! When Excel is launched, the add-in is automatically loaded. The add-in then does the following:
  -- checks to see if there is a new version
  -- checks to see if new segment rates are available (at the user's option this can be disabled)
  -- loads the add-in's menu to Excel's menu
  -- registers all of the EAC functions
  All of this happens very quickly due to reduced file sizes and efforts to improve efficiency.
• The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) that was signed into law on December 29, 2022 as part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act amended Code Section 414(v). Under this new provision, effective for the 2025 tax year, active participants aged 60 through 63 can contribute the greater of:
  -- Catchup: $10,000 or 150% of the 2024 catch-up contribution limit (indexed).
  -- CatchupSIMPLE: $5,000 or 150% of the 2024 simple catch-up contribution limit (indexed).
• Corrected the calculation of IRALimit to be based on C-CPI-U instead of CPI-U.
• Removed changing the calculation mode to auto at startup. The calculation mode at startp will be set according to standard Excel protocol.

11 new mortality tables were added to EAC Tools. These tables were published in the Federal Register on 6/6/2024; also published by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in its final rule titled Valuations Assumptions and Methods; also as provided by the PBGC on its website ERISA section 4044/4050 mortality tables.

These tables are used for calculations where the valuation date is on or after July 31, 2024.

The table for missing participants is a static unisex table:

• 2024 PBGC Missing Participants Mortality Table for Determination Dates in 2024
  Table name ERISA-4050-2024*

The table for participants eligible for Social Security disability benefits is a static table:

• 2024 ERISA Section 4044 Social Security Disabled Lives Mortality Table
  Table names ERISA-4044-2024*-SSDIS-M and ERISA-4044-2024*-SSDIS-F

​
For healthy annuitants and healthy non-annuitants, 2012 base tables are provided.

• 2012 PBGC Annuitant Healthy Lives Base Mortality Table
  Table names PBGC2012BASE-ANN-M and PBGC2012BASE-ANN-F
• 2012 PBGC Non-Annuitant Healthy Lives Base Mortality Table
  Table names PBGC2012BASE-NON-M and PBGC2012BASE-NON-F

For ERISA 4044 calculations, the 2012 base tables are to be projected with generational mortality improvement using scale MP-2021. These tables have not been officially published at this time. The tables in EAC Tools were created using the add-in's regular mortality table definitions: for example, the table ERISA-4044-2024*-ANN-M was created using: PBGC2012BASE-ANN-M/MP2021@2024/gen.
The tables for valuation dates in 2024 (on or after July 31, 2024) are:

• 2024 ERISA Section 4044 Non-Annuitant Healthy Lives Mortality Table
  Table names ERISA-4044-2024*-NON-M and ERISA-4044-2024*-NON-F
• 2024 ERISA Section 4044 Annuitant Healthy Lives Mortality Table
  Table names ERISA-4044-2024*-ANN-M and ERISA-4044-2024*-ANN-F

Added 2025 IRS static mortality tables published in IRS Notice 2024-42:

• 417(e) lump sum mortality table
• 430(h) static tables (male and female)

You now can view tables and charts showing:

• Consumer Price Index (CPI-U and CPI-W)
• Treasury rates (1, 3, 5, 10, 30-year)
• IRS minimum present value segment rates

These charts are available from the EAC Tools "Special" menu.

EAC Terms and Conditions have been changed. All users will have to agree to the Terms and Conditions when they launch EAC Tools version 2024.2.1 for the first time.

Click here to read the Terms and Conditions; also available in Excel: EAC Tools/About EAC Tools/View Terms and Conditions.

Fixed a bug where Excel would open, and the add-in would change the calculation mode set to "manual" instead of "automatic", overriding the user's desired setting. This was a rather mysterious issue in Excel that affected some users.

Fixed a potential bug that popped up in version 2023.1.1 that was issued last week. This issue affected only EAC Tools -- Full Version, it did not affect EAC Tools -- Basic Version.

The bug occurred if you were to refresh the Social Security wage base data. In this case, the download from the Social Security web page would fail. If you did not refresh the wage base data, then there was no problem.

If you refreshed the wage base data, then you would have the problem:

• Function WageBase was off (during the download, the digits after the comma were dropped). For example, the wage base for 2024 would be $168 instead of $168,600.
• Function CovComp and Function SocSec were off because of the WageBase issue.
• ​The resulting values for Wage Base, Covered Compensation, and Social Security would be nearly zero, thankfully it is an error that is hard to miss!

Fixed a bug that popped up in version 2024.1.0: This affected only the AESLtoJL function where the "years certain" parameter was set to, for example, "5,0". In this example, the function would use 5-years certain for the SL annuity, and 0-years certain for the JL annuity. The bug was using incorrectly treating "5,0" as a number instead of a text string, resulting in using 50-years certain for the SL annuity.