Thought Leadership

Risk Services

Reinsurance

Human Capital Consulting

Risk Services

Surety Marketplace Update
Surety Association of America Announces 2008 Year-End Results.

Month in Review - August 2009
Legal news and developments in executive liability and insurance published by Aon's Financial Services Group, Legal & Claims Practice.

Cyber Liability & Higher Education - Aon Professional Risk Solutions
This paper examines the unique exposures that educational institutions face related to the Internet and information security and privacy

Enterprise Risk Management - S&P Enhancement
This paper discusses how Standard and Poor's decision to include review of ERM programs in its global rating process is impacting companies

EPL Advisor
A review of Employment Practices Liability news and development published by Aon's Financial Services Group

Help for Deals in Troubled Times
This paper provides an overview of transaction liability solutions that can aid the execution of distressed mergers and acquisitions

How Can You More Effectively Mitigate and Manage a Major Property Loss?
This paper explores the value of an expansive business continuity and loss mitigation plan

Infectious Disease in the Workplace "People at Risk"
This paper discusses how disease in the workplace can cause a variety of economic consequences and reviews preventitive risk management and recovery strategies

International Executive Liability Advisor
This newsletter, published quarterly by Aon's Financial Services Group, reviews the latest D&O claims and cases of interest around the world.

International Executive Liability Alert
This Alert highlights important issues related to D&O claims and cases of interest around the world and is published as needed by Aon's Financial Services Group.

Property Market Update '08
A review of Property market pricing, terms, and conditions by Aon's National Property Practice

The Inpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rules for 2008 and 2009 
This white paper was prepared in response to CMS’ publication of the Inpatient Prospective Payment System [IPPS] Final Rules for FY 2008 and 2009 and addresses rulings and the implications for healthcare facilities, including strategies for dealing with challengescreated by the rulings.

Quarterly D&O Pricing Index - Second Quarter 2009
The quarterly index of Directors' and Officers' Liability insurance costs published by Aon's Financial Services Group.

Solutions for Legacy Casualty Claims
This paper explores the factors and costs behind unresolved casualty claims and outlines a systematic process for closing claims and mitigating their ultimate cost

Sustainability - Beyond Enterprise Risk Management
This paper examines how sustainability allows corporation to consider emerging risk areas and to look for opportunities presented by risks that are overlooked by other analytical and system-driven approaches

The Market for Lawyers’ Professional Liability Insurance for Large U.S. Firms
This paper provides an overview of the current market for professional liability insurance for law firms with 50 attorneys or greater

Why a Global D&O Program is the Right Choice, Right Now
This paper examines how a comprehensive D&O liability insurance program has become a leading issue for U.S. businesses with subsidiaries and partners abroad and all multi-nationals

Will Insurers be Burned by the Climate Change Phenomenon?
This paper explores the numerous risks associated with climate change and their effect on insurance companies

^ top

Human Capital Consulting

Click here to view our U.S. client newsletter, Ready

Past Issues of Ready
June 2009 
February 2009
November 2008

Click here to view our Canada client newsletter, Ready
En français

Click here to view our Asia client newsletter, Asia Connect

Available White Papers

Retail Holiday Hiring Survey
The 2009 Aon Consulting Retail Holiday Hiring Survey is designed to help retailers develop hiring strategies for the holidays and aid in their benchmarking efforts.

Complex Chronic Illness: An Essential Ingredient in Health Care Cost Management
Corporate America continues to battle rising health care costs. The only long-term solution, however, involves looking at the root causes of medical cost increases: complex chronic illness.

Managing the economic crisis: Building a framework for human capital planning
Aon's suggested framework for assessing your organization's strategic position and the primary HR tactics to consider for your strategy.

Aon Consulting Benefit Trends Survey
As a Canadian leader in health and benefits consulting, Aon Canada has unparalleled access to the concerns, ideas and approaches to employee benefits of Canada’s leading organizations. Aon Consulting’s 2009 Canadian Benefits Trends Survey team collaborated with over 275 of these organizations to closely examine their top five areas of concern: group benefits, retirement plans, talent management, communications and outsourcing.

Preparing for Tomorrow Today
Does the recession have you up at night worrying about your HR strategy. If so, remember that any crisis comes complete with its own set of opportunities.

European Business Leaders Survey
The ways in which pension benefits are delivered in different European countries is diverse, from fully-funded defined benefit models in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK, to fully insured defined contribution arrangements in Scandinavian countries. Find out what Aon Consulting's European leaders have to say on local issues affect pension provision in 11 countries.

Salary Increases: Separating Fact from Speculation
There is a lot of noise in the market and in the press that suggests that many banks and financial services firms of all types are increasing salaries broadly. This article sorts fact from fiction.

Is it Time to Switch from Cost-Cutting Back to Compensation Strategy?
At the midway point in 2009, is it time to switch gears from survival mode to planning for an eventual upturn with our compensation strategies?

Considering Salary Increases
All this talk about increasing salaries in financial institutions is surprising, given that relative performance is, for the most part, declining. Since the people raising the issue are neither naive nor stupid, there must be a method behind the madness. When you scratch the surface there are some very good reasons...

The Brave New World of Executive Compensation
This is a year like no other in the world of executive compensation. Everything has turned on its head. The challenges for professionals in the field are staggering.

Bonus Plans within Public Pension Funds
Taxpayers, beneficiaries and politicians are up in arms about paying bonuses to public fund investment staff during this economic crisis.

Employer Health Asset Management
A roadmap for Improving the health of your employees and your organization.

High-Volume Recruitment
Five "do's" for handling high-volume recruitment in a down economy

Rethinking Your ATS
Help on implementing an Applicant Tracking System.

SUB Plans Resurface in Tough Economic Times
Employers have been increasingly looking to supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB) plans to offset a portion of the costs associated with severance plans by amounts payable under state unemployment laws.

Why You Should be a Human Capital Risk Manager
HR leaders face an increasingly complex set of overlapping and conflicting. This paper explores how HR leaders are taking a systematic approach and applying disciplined thinking to managing risk across major HR functions.

Web 2.0 and Employee Communications: Summary of Survey Findings March 2009
Align your media to employees’ preferences and get results faster. Survey findings show emerging preference for Web 2.0 media in employee communications.

Strategies for Realizing Greater Returns
Results from our Call Monitoring Practices Survey.

2008 Replacement Ratio Survey
Are your employees able to retire? If not, when can they retire? How do their contributions affect retirement readiness? Employers are facing these questions as baby boomers continue to leave the workforce - and as retirement education and preparation falls increasingly on their shoulders.

Defined Contribution Plan Management
Retirement income solutions for Defined Contribution plans.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006
An emerging assessment of the Pension Protection Act (June 2009).

Changing Corporate Culture with Sales Incentives
How one company is transforming its sales culture in China.

The Quality Test: Internal vs. Third Party Call Monitoring

Responding to the Crisis
The results of Aon research Into HR issues during Asia's economic downturn

Ready 2012 Pension Pulse Survey
As a result of increasing press regarding both the number of pension plans that have eliminated their retirement plan’s benefit accruals to all or a portion of their workers and the degree to which those companies have put in place policies, programs, or plan changes to avoid, eliminate, or mitigate risk, Aon Consulting undertook a survey of companies with frozen defined benefit (DB) pension plans in January of 2009 to address these questions.

The Reality of Virtual Work: Is Your Organization Ready?
Despite today’s volatile economic conditions, one message remains consistent: Innovative workplace strategies that efficiently leverage human capital are increasingly valuable.

Spring 2009 Health Care Trend Survey
Aon Consulting’s Spring 2009 Health Care Trend Survey

Multinational Pooling in Today's Climate: Seven Steps to Keep You on Track
Dramatic changes in the business climate make this an ideal time for companies to examine whether their existing multinational pooling arrangements are delivering the maximum savings, or whether a multinational pooling arrangement is now the best option.

The Power of Alternative Employee Benefits Purchasing Models
The current state of the economy has CFOs scrambling to lower costs and gain financial control in all areas of their organizations. One way to craft new solutions in the HR area is by using employee benefit coalition purchasing alliances to leverage market power.

Hidden Health Care Plan Costs Unearthed with Dependent Eligibility Audits
In response to current market conditions, many organizations are paying increased attention to carefully managing balance sheets in an effort to remain competitive, or in some cases, viable.

Keeping Employees Engaged in Troubled Economic Times
The focus of Human Resources during the most recent decade or two has shifted away from administrative and transactional work and toward the more strategic task of acquiring, developing, and rewarding the talent needed to achieve business success.

Managing your Frozen Pension Plan: A New Paradigm
Recent changes in funding requirements and financial reporting have brought increased attention to frozen pension plans. Coupled with recent market turmoil, there is increased interest in finding better ways to move these single employer and multiple employer qualified plans to full funding.

Leading Talent in a Crisis Economy
Organizations that manage their talent well in a crisis economy have a better chance of flourishing - and emerging as industry leaders.

Upside of Crisis
How winning firms transform to create the future.

Pension Pulse Survey
What are your peer companies doing in terms of pensions? Plan participants and plan sponsors must now address defined benefit and defined contribution plans in ways they have never considered. Unprecedented interest rates, asset return and overall market volatility, combined with recently enacted changes to both IRS funding rules (The Pension Protection Act) and financial accounting rules (FAS 158) are shifting portfolio management practices and employee communication plans. The survey report addresses each of these situations and what organizations are doing to mitigate the associated risks.

Design Your Retiree Medical Plan for Maximum Flexibility
U.S. employers are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain the level of retirement benefits provided to workers over the last half century, particularly retiree medical benefits. According to current accounting standards, employers must accrue the cost of retiree medical benefits over the active lifetime of employees. This paper discusses the actuarial expense as a function of the actuarial liability of the plan.

Restoring Retirement Security: Updating Canada's Pension System
This paper examines seven critical issues facing the Canadian pension system today, beginning with the constraints the system places on the efficient distribution of risk between employers and employees and the opportunity for an alternative to defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. It offers solutions to enable the pension system to work better now and in the future.

Canadian Pension Plan Survey
Canada’s estimated $1.14 trillion pension plan marketplace appears to have entered a period of consolidation following the wave of conversions from defined benefit to defined contribution plans that took place in the early 2000s. The results of this survey demonstrate a stabilization within the ranks of both federal and provincially regulated defined benefit pension plans.

Multilife Disability Plan Market Survey
This survey focuses on the prevalence and plan design features of supplemental disability programs that provide individual long-term disability policies for a group of highly compensated employees, known as Multilife programs.

Innovative Approaches to Impact Medical Spend and Employee Productivity
With health care costs on the rise, organizations are looking for innovative ways to reduce overall healthcare spend and minimize risk for employees. This report provides a detailed overview of Aon Consulting’s approach to healthcare solutions.

Employee Benefits Captives: Their Role in Managing Enterprise Risk
Captives are widely-used enterprise risk management solutions that can produce attractive alternative risk-transfer options for companies. This paper explains what options are available and what methods can provide the best return.

President-Elect Barack Obama's Healthcare Reform Plan
Review of how Barack Obama's proposed health care reform policy will affect organization's healthcare plans.

Using Perspective-Taking to Create a Client-Centric Organization
How can organizations create a culture that places clients first in all circumstances and anticipates their needs and expectations? This paper discusses how leading service firms are developing client centricity by infusing “perspective taking” throughout their core service strategies.

Harnessing Human Capital in Today's Asia-Pacific Environment
Employers in many parts of Asia are being squeezed in a vise between the needs of the business and the demands of employees. Slower economic growth, investor pessimism, skyrocketing costs, price competition, and skills shortages are making companies increasingly wary of acquiescing to employee demands. Yet, employees are faced with a rising cost of living and robust employment demands, which put them in a good position in employment or wage negotiations.

Controlling Leadership Talent Risk, An Enterprise Imperative
Grooming leaders is one of the most critical business needs in the modern workplace, and having the right people in place to lead your organization through tough periods of fast growth and economic downturns is critical.

Taming the Tiger: Rising Health Care Costs in Asia
The rising cost of healthcare is not a problem that employers in Asia generally wish to accept or tackle. This article addresses short-term and long-term strategies for managing this complex problem in China.

Anticipating Slowdown, Companies in China Take Action
Companies in China, particularly exporters, are taking pre-emptive measures to keep their business on an even keel in the face of expected strong head wind from the global financial crisis. Aon conducted a survey of employers in China to find out what measures they are taking to survive the crisis.

^ top