SOA Enrolled Actuaries EA-2 Segment L Examination Practice Test
EA-2L practice questions address defined benefit pension plan funding and benefit administration. The available question bank touches on funded status, minimum funding purposes, valuation dates, actuarial assumptions, participant records, and forms of payment. It also raises issues involving beneficiary designations and whether employees of related companies may need to be considered together.
Exam overview
About the SOA Enrolled Actuaries EA-2 Segment L Examination Exam
Work through how plan assets and the present value of accrued benefits inform a funded-status assessment, and how an assumption such as future salary growth can affect a measured obligation. Questions also connect valuation timing and accurate participant data to benefit administration. For payment scenarios, distinguish a lifetime-only annuity from a qualified joint and survivor annuity, including the survivor-payment feature. Other scenarios ask what beneficiary designations determine and why related-company employees may be analyzed together for retirement-plan purposes. These topics call for reading plan facts carefully, identifying the actuarial or administrative concept at issue, and explaining its practical effect without confusing plan funding with an individual participant’s benefit claim.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
A pension plan holds assets whose market value is below the present value of its accrued benefits. Which statement best describes the plan's funded status?
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Correct answer: BOn a given measurement basis, funded status compares plan assets with the relevant benefit liability. If the liability exceeds assets, the plan has an unfunded amount equal to that difference. Contributions during a year or participant counts alone do not establish full funding.
A defined benefit pension plan is subject to a minimum funding requirement. Which general purpose does the requirement serve?
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Correct answer: AMinimum funding rules generally require contributions sufficient to fund promised benefits under applicable assumptions and methods. They do not guarantee maximum benefits or prescribe a single investment strategy or formula.
A defined benefit plan permits a participant to name a beneficiary for any benefit payable after the participant's death. What is the beneficiary designation primarily used to determine?
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Correct answer: AA beneficiary designation identifies the person or persons who may receive a death benefit when the plan provides for one, subject to plan terms and applicable legal requirements. It does not determine service credit, investment management, or funding amounts.
A pension plan valuation is performed as of a specified date. Why is the valuation date important?
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Correct answer: AA valuation is a measurement as of a stated date. Participant information, asset values, and assumptions are applied with reference to that date, even though actual experience and values may later change.
A plan provides a qualified joint and survivor annuity as its normal form for a married participant, subject to applicable requirements and permitted elections. What is the central feature of this form?
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Correct answer: AA joint and survivor annuity pays the participant during life and, after the participant's death, continues a specified portion to the surviving spouse for the spouse's life. The survivor percentage and available elections are governed by law and plan terms.
A plan sponsor is evaluating whether employees of a related company must be considered together with its own employees for certain retirement-plan requirements. Which concept is most relevant to that inquiry?
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Correct answer: ARules concerning related employers can require entities to be treated together for specified retirement-plan purposes. The analysis depends on the applicable legal standards and the entities' relationships.
A defined benefit pension plan's actuary changes an assumption about future salary growth. Which present-value measure is most directly affected by that change?
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Correct answer: AFor a salary-related defined benefit plan, projected benefits incorporate expected future compensation. Changing the salary-growth assumption can therefore change the projected benefit obligation; it does not itself change participant counts, plan terms, or tax rates.
How to use this practice test
The free EA-2L practice session draws up to 20 random questions from the 50-question bank. Submit a session to see results, then revisit missed items by identifying the underlying concept—such as funded status, payment form, or participant data—and explaining why it applies to the scenario.
Preparation tips
- For funded-status questions, compare the stated market value of plan assets with the present value of accrued benefits before selecting a description.
- Trace how a change in salary-growth assumptions could affect the present value of benefits; keep the assumption change distinct from a change in plan provisions.
- For annuity scenarios, identify who receives payments during the participant’s life and whether payments continue to a surviving spouse.
- When a question involves related companies, focus on the issue of combining employee groups rather than treating each employer as automatically separate.
- Check how errors in birth dates, valuation dates, and beneficiary records can affect benefit calculations or administration, and distinguish those effects from the participant’s underlying claim.