Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Prior to 2006, year-end stocks outstanding estimated from DOL, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Private Pension Plan Bulletin: Abstract of Form 5500 Annual Reports, Table C4. Balance Sheet of Pension Plans with 100 or More Participants, Defined Benefit, as the sum of Assets in pooled separate accounts and Assets in insurance company general accounts, adjusted for plans whose fiscal years do not end on December 31 and to include plans with fewer than 100 participants times the ratio of assets in insurance company general accounts to the sum of assets in pooled separate accounts plus assets in insurance company general accounts. The unadjusted transactions are the change in stocks outstanding. Since 2006q1, year-end stocks outstanding estimated from DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration, Private Pension Plan Bulletin: Abstract of Form 5500 Annual Reports and DOL Form 5500 Direct Filing Entity Bulletin: Abstract of Form 5500 Annual Reports table 12, Defined Benefit, as Assets in insurance company general accounts. The stocks outstanding are then adjusted for plans whose fiscal years do not end on December 31 and to include plans with fewer than 100 participants. Data are available with a two-year lag. Series is converted to quarterly and estimated for quarters assuming constant transactions throughout the year. Since 1988, unadjusted transactions are the change in stocks outstanding. Prior to 1988, the series includes both General and Separate Account reserves, and the unadjusted transactions are the change in stocks outstanding less FOF estimate of capital gains on equities backing Separate Account reserves. Data for the most recent ten years show no significant seasonality. Data are available with a two-year lag.