Demystifying Retirement Management for Multinational Employers

Demystifying Retirement Management for Multinational Employers
May 18, 2026 8 mins

Demystifying Retirement Management for Multinational Employers

Demystifying Retirement Management for Multinational Employers

For multinational employers, global retirement management turns shared principles into consistent governance. This can result in improved retirement outcomes across countries.

Key Takeaways
  1. As costs and accountability increase, global retirement and benefit teams are taking a more active role in overseeing retirement plans and outcomes across countries.
  2. Leading organizations are establishing clear ownership, governance and visibility across retirement plans, while preserving flexibility for local regulation and market practice.
  3. Better data changes the conversation. Improved visibility — supported by digital tools — helps employers identify gaps, benchmark plans and prioritize action across countries.

Many multinational employers are re-examining how they manage defined contribution (DC) plans as retirement costs, regulatory scrutiny and workforce expectations increase. What was once treated as a local, one-time design decision is now recognized as a long-term investment that requires active oversight across countries. Organizations are starting to evaluate whether employees can retire comfortably based on state provision, employer-sponsored plans and personal savings.

In practice, however, formal retirement governance is often concentrated in a handful of larger markets, where plans are most visible or most heavily regulated. Outside these core countries, DC arrangements may operate with limited or purely administrative local oversight and little connection to any global framework.

“Retirement has quietly become one of the largest employee benefit investments for many organizations globally, yet global retirement management and oversight often remain fragmented across countries and vendors,” says Alison Cosadinos, Head of UK and EMEA International Wealth Solutions. Fewer than one in four multinationals have both a centralized global benefit strategy and formal governance in place. Almost half still rely entirely on decentralized local oversight.1

Centralizing the Governance of DC Plans

DC can’t be treated as “set and forget,” says Céline Ng Tong, Business Development Director of Global Benefits in the UK. “Governance has to keep pace with the scale of spend and duty of care employers now carry when managing retirement plans for multinational workforces.”

Many organizations believe they have their retirement governance covered. As employers look at optimizing their total rewards spend, cost management is now a priority in global benefits. While controlling costs is key, short-term savings must not sacrifice long term value, especially for retirement outcomes. Even when a DC plan appears well-designed, outcomes can erode significantly over time.

50%

of companies currently have no or only ad hoc global reporting for benefit governance.

Source: Aon’s 2025 Global Benefits Trends Study

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Defined contribution plans aren’t ‘set and forget.’ Governance has to evolve as people, plans and regulations change.

Céline Ng Tong
Business Development Director, Global Benefits

5 Ways Global Retirement Management Addresses Critical Challenges

As global retirement management evolves, multinational employers are looking for more intentional ways to manage plans across countries. The goal is not to make every plan identical, but to establish central oversight with clear accountability, reliable information and a repeatable way to identify and address risk across plans, while preserving local flexibility. That’s where DC pooled solutions, including master trusts and pooled employer plans (PEPs), can help solve some of the challenges for global retirement plans:

  • 1. Alleviates governance and administrative burdens to focus on strategy

    As DC plan assets overtake defined benefit (DB) plan assets, global benefit teams increasingly manage larger investments and more complex governance expectations. Collective arrangements — like PEPs or master trusts such as Aon’s cross-border United Pensions — can reduce governance and resource pressures through centralized oversight and simplified administration. This can free HR and benefit teams from day-to-day operational complexity and create capacity to focus on strategy, employee impact and long-term outcomes. “Global retirement planning shouldn’t just be about compliance; it should empower people to achieve their future goals,” adds Tong.

  • 2. Decreases risks of scrutiny and litigation

    Enhanced governance structures and proactive monitoring are critical in markets where legal and reputational risks are rising. In some markets, increased scrutiny and legal action have heightened awareness around poor retirement outcomes, exposing employers to reputational and financial risk. Collective arrangements can support this by providing clearer documentation, more transparent decision making and established governance cycles. This helps employers demonstrate accountability for how decisions are made and reviewed.

  • 3. Simplifies vendors and strengthen oversight

    Across countries, retirement programs can sit with multiple providers, administrators and platforms, each with different fee structures, service models and reporting. A global approach helps reduce complexity by consolidating vendors where possible, streamlining fees and clarifying accountability across plans — particularly in highly-regulated markets. The primary value is improved oversight: clearer ownership, stronger governance and better visibility into risks and performance.

  • 4. Uses technology to enhance transparency

    Digital tools are integral to global retirement strategies, offering improved visibility and understanding. Their impact is twofold:

    • For employers, technology can centralize and structure retirement plan data across countries, making it easier to benchmark programs and identify governance gaps. Improved reporting also helps global teams monitor compliance and maintain visibility as plans evolve.
    • For employees, digital tools can support clearer communication and understanding, including scenario modeling that shows how today’s decisions may affect future retirement outcomes. This matters because financial literacy remains a barrier: Only 39% of adults meet minimum financial literacy standards worldwide.2
  • 5. Addresses demographic and workforce pressures

    An aging workforce, delayed retirement and changing career patterns are adding urgency to retirement readiness discussions. Employers are asking not just what benefits they provide, but whether those benefits support sustainability both in terms of workforce and cost. Employee understanding is an important part of the equation. Many employees assume their employer’s retirement plan will be sufficient, which can mask retirement income gaps and affect workforce planning. As Aon’s Cosadinos notes, “Focusing on how retirement programs support outcomes, instead of only what is offered, gets to the heart of the issue: Are people working longer because they want to, or because they can’t afford to retire?"

29%

of organizations do not have a formal training or upskilling plan for global retirement and benefit teams.

Source: Aon’s 2025 Global Benefits Trends Study

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Employers invest substantially in retirement plans. If employees don’t fully understand what their plan will deliver, that value is lost. Clear communication is what makes the difference.

Alison Cosadinos
Head of UK & EMEA International Wealth Solutions

Principles of a Global Retirement Management Framework

Multinationals are prioritizing the rollout of global minimum standards, a shift highlighted in Aon's 2025 Global Benefits Trends Study. For retirement, these standards serve as baseline governance expectations — such as clear ownership, disciplined monitoring, thorough documentation and consistent reporting — rather than dictating plan design. This approach maintains local flexibility alongside central oversight. When establishing a global retirement management framework, remember to:

  1. Set Clear Global Principles: Define shared expectations across plan design, financing, operations, administration, governance and oversight while avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach.
  2. Establish Baseline Expectations: Use agreed criteria to guide local design and identify where programs fall short. Focus on governance quality, documentation, reporting capability and plan design.
  3. Assess and Prioritize Plans: Focus on high-risk or high-impact countries, vendors or employee populations to avoid governance overload and unmanaged drift.
  4. Allow Local Flexibility: Adapt to regulation, market practice, M&A activity and workforce mobility. Built-in flexibility lowers the risk of regulatory and tax surprises and helps avoid compliance breaches.
  5. Use Consistent Data and Reporting: Improve access to comparable information across plans so global teams can see the full picture and identify issues earlier.
  6. Build Ongoing Governance Cycles: Review and monitor plans to ensure continued alignment with strategy as markets and regulations change.
  7. Invest in Expertise: Where internal capacity is stretched, specialist support can help maintain momentum and apply governance consistently.

Global Retirement Management

Retirement benefits represent one of the largest global benefit investments for many employers. The question is no longer whether retirement should be managed globally, but how intentionally and effectively it is governed. Learn more about how Aon supports multinationals in managing retirement planning globally

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Aon's Thought Leaders

Alison Cosadinos
Head of UK & EMEA International Wealth Solutions

Céline Ng Tong
Business Development Director, Global Benefits

1 Aon’s 2025 Global Benefits Trends Study
2 OECD/INFE 2023 International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy, OECD

General Disclaimer

This document is not intended to address any specific situation or to provide legal, regulatory, financial, or other advice. While care has been taken in the production of this document, Aon does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the document or any part of it and can accept no liability for any loss incurred in any way by any person who may rely on it. Any recipient shall be responsible for the use to which it puts this document. This document has been compiled using information available to us up to its date of publication and is subject to any qualifications made in the document.

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