Roberto Perez, CFA, is the Chief Financial Officer for Home Stores, Inc., a large home improvement retailer with stores located across the United States. Home Stores is preparing for a secondary stock offering to secure the necessary capital to pursue an aggressive expansion campaign. Perez has received a directive from his boss to make every legitimate effort to present Home Stores’ upcoming financial statements in the best possible light. Perez determines that certain assumptions in the pension plan can be changed to fulfill this request. Which of the following pension plan assumptions can be changed by a firm to manipulate its reported results?
A) |
increased expected rate of return |
decreased service cost | | |
B) |
decreased rate of compensation growth |
decreased service cost | | |
C) |
decreased discount rate |
increased expected return | | |
The rate of compensation growth is the expected average annual increase in employee compensation. If the rate of growth is lowered, reported results will be improved due to a decrease in service cost. A decrease in service cost will result in lower pension expense. |