Retirement and Investment Global Webinar Series

Longevity May be the Biggest risk in Your Pension Plan. Can it be Managed?

Every year, the life expectancy of Canadians grows longer. Great news for many, however as people are expected to live longer so grows the pension plan’s liabilities. A one-year increase in life expectancy means approximately up to 3%-4% increase in liabilities.

Many pension plan sponsors focus on investment risk, justifiably so. However, some may be under or overestimating their liabilities by up to 10% using a cookie-cutter approach to measuring their plan’s unique longevity risk profile.

Join this webinar to:

• Understand longevity risk and what it means to your pension plan
• Learn how a bespoke view of your plan’s longevity risk profile can be added to your risk budgeting
• See innovations in predictive modeling for informed decision-making in plan management and de-risking

Host William da Silva and presenter Tom Aultshared longevity risk implications on pension plans, and demonstrate new benchmarking approaches and de-risking options available to all plan sponsors.

Who should attend? Senior HR, finance and pension managers involved in pension risk and investment management strategy.

The UK's decision to leave the European Union (EU), or Brexit, has implications for retirement plans around the world. Brexit has created near-term volatility in markets and falls in global long-term government bond yields, pushing up global retirement plan deficits. It's expected that investment markets will remain susceptible to increased volatility for the next few years while the UK's EU exit terms are negotiated.

On July 19 and 20, Aon's global experts hosted an internationally-focused webinar looking at the potential implications of Brexit on retirement plans around the world, as well as the new European Pensions Directive (IORP II) in relation to plans in the European Economic (EEA).

International organizations with DB and DC retirement plans in multiple countries should listen to the replay as we discuss a range of topics:

• Our views on developing economic and investment conditions – what does this mean for global pension plan investment and hedging strategies?
• The implications of Brexit-driven volatility and falling yields in major occupational pension markets, for example UK, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Japan. What does this mean for pension plan sponsors and employees?
• Bringing it all together: how should global companies respond?
• Implementing a global governance structure, taking into account requirements of IORPII?

The webinars included contributions from leaders and experts from Aon's Global Retirement & Investment practice and are expected to last an hour with an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

While the growth and development of defined contribution plans vary from market to market, every country and plan provider is challenged with how best to guide plan participants in converting their accumulated plan savings into income that will support them in retirement.

This webinar will consider the objectives and typical trade-offs involved, and provide a truly global view into how different countries are approaching this challenge, and provide real-time insights from our global Aon Hewitt thought-leaders and clients on how they are thinking about and taking on this challenge. This webinar will provide food for thought that will help you navigate the optimization of plan features that efficiently address decumulation, from plan design through to retirement readiness.

The webinar replay and presentation feature guest speakers from all 3 global sessions

Our Global Pension Risk Survey 2015 was carried out across five countries, with over 500 responses covering pension plan assets of over $1 trillion. Many thanks to those of you who participated.

Pension risk remains high on corporate agendas. Prolonged low interest rates are having a debilitating effect of pension liabilities, while market turbulence is playing havoc on the asset side of corporate balance sheets.

New solutions and strategies are being developed to deal with this unprecedented state of affairs, coming from governments and legislators, new settlement strategies, market innovations and fundamental changes to governance models.

To this end, we held a webcast which explored the results of the survey in each of the following regions:

• U.S.
• UK
• Canada
• EMEA (principally the Netherlands, Switzerland and France)

This included a "compare and contrast" discussion showing how the regions have adopted and adapted to key issues such as:

• Managing the End Game
• Investment Trends and the growth in delegated solutions
• Benefit trends – beyond just closures and freezes
• Settlement options – for scheme and for individuals

2015 continues to be a year of change for defined contribution (DC) retirement plans around the world. DC investment strategies, more than ever before, are under the spotlight as employers and plan managers have major decisions to make on investment choices and member options at retirement.

In the second of Aon’s The world of DC webcast series, to be held on 16th July, our experts will dig deeper in to DC investment challenges and provide insights from the experiences in North America, UK, Europe and China.

We will explore:

• Trends in pre- and post-retirement DC investment strategies as well as default funds
• The latest developments in provider solutions
• Country-specific regulatory concerns
• Investment-specific aspects of global DC governance policies

And ask: what does all of this mean for DC members?

Over 750 DC representatives registered for our last webcast in this series. Likewise, this promises to be an interesting and interactive session with opportunities for you to ask questions of our DC investment experts from a number of countries throughout the world.

2015 will be a year of change for Defined Contribution (DC) retirement plans around the world.

Radical reforms in the UK, as well as legislative proposals in the US and Australia, will mean employers will have some major decisions to make on investment choices and participant options at retirement.

On March 18 and 19, Aon Hewitt experts from around the world hosted a webinar exploring global DC trends and the impact for DC retirement plans in multiple countries.

Topics of discussion included:

• Latest changes in major DC markets
• Impact to investment choices, employer decision-making and participant education
• Responses by organizations to address these changes
• Growing focus on financial wellness for participants

Attendees also had an opportunity to ask questions to our expert panel of speakers and take part in interactive voting to benchmark how employers are responding to these developments. The webinar featured national leaders from Aon Hewitt's DC practices in the UK, Australia and the US.