Beware, when defining Net Periodic Pension Cost, there is a discrepancy in the formulas found in Elan Guides and CFAI: According to Elan: NPPC = Ending Funded Status - Beginning Funded Status + Employer Contribution Whereas CFAI defines it as: NPPC = Ending Funded Status - Beginning Funded Status - Employer Contribution Make sure you use the CFAI formula on the day of the exam EDIT: actually it’s more a problem of the definition of Employer Contribution on the statement. Although it’s a cash out operation, CFAI doesn’t put a “-” sign in front of the figure. Still beware.
I am totally lost with CFAI’s curriculum: In EOC6, CFAI uses Employer Contribution of -693, while in EOC9 CFAI uses Employer Contribution of +1000 What is going on? How can we know when to use + or -? While the EOC writer doesn’t seem to write answer choices to trap us (in EOC9 he could have written 1020 or -980) I don’t want that situation to happen on the exam. Should I simply adapt the signs to whatever the way the CFAI writes is? eg: in exhibit 1, PPC is 483, while in the formula of EOC6 it’s written as -483 Because if that’s the case, then the signs in the formula don’t mean much.
Ok let me clarify this issue:
Regarding the formulas in the first post, CFAI treats the negative change funded status (End-Beg) as net pension liability. Whereas, Elan treats the negative change in funded status as net pension asset. So, this is nothing wrong with both formulas.
The curriculum does a pretty bad job of switching between signs, just need to understand the concept and it will then be irrelevant if everything is positive or negative.
I read the FRA and I thought Forward Rate Agreement and got scared seeing FRA and pension together… 
@eveningstar: Refer to my posts dated 2nd march, 2013.
http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-ii-forum/91318171