Deals & People May 7, 2009

Mercer Expands DC Services Distribution Team

Mercer announced the addition of six new hires to support the expanded distribution of its defined contribution (DC) administration services to plan sponsors with 500 or more employees.
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According to a news release, individuals that report to Kerry Sain, North American sales leader for Mercer’s outsourcing business, include:

  • William Callaway, sales leader—Southeast, Great Lakes, and Midwest: He joins Mercer from Wachovia Retirement Services, where he served as vice president, regional sales director. He is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
  • Derrick Capps, DC business strategist: He joins Mercer from Wachovia Retirement Services, where he served as Core Market Inside Sales Desk manager and consultant relations associate. He is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • Martin Cole, sales leader—Northeast: He joins Mercer from Wachovia Retirement Services, where he served as vice president, sales manager, Core Market Team, North region. He is based in Middletown, New Jersey.
  • Shannon Massey, DC business strategist: She joins Mercer from AllianceBernstein, where she served as a client service officer. She is based in Norwood, Massachusetts.
  • Frank Tighe, sales leader—West, Northwest, and Southwest: He joins Mercer from Wachovia Retirement Services, where he served as vice president, regional sales director. He is based in Houston, Texas.

In addition, Mercer announced that Elizabeth Antin has joined the firm as a relationship manager. Antin comes to Mercer from ING America, where she was vice president, Client Service Team manager. She is based in Norwood, Massachusetts, and will report to Bill McDevitt, U.S. leader, Relationship Management, for Mercer’s outsourcing business.

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In March, Mercer it was expanding sales of its defined contribution administration services to add distribution through the adviser channel and offering its DC services to clients with 500 or more employees (see “Mercer Adds Adviser Channel to DC Administration Sales“).

Data & Research May 7, 2009

Pension Plan Sponsors Move toward Plan Termination

Aon Consulting found that many companies with frozen pensions intend to make investment strategy changes to cut corporate pension expense volatility and put themselves one step closer to plan termination.
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An Aon news release said its poll of more than 70 U.S. organizations, with a cumulative total of frozen pension plan assets of more than $50 billion, found that 81% are planning to change their investment strategy in the near future. Some 35% are looking to hedge significant risks, while 27% plan to change investments to reflect the shorter investment horizon to termination, and 19% plan to move to a more liability-driven investment strategy.

“The majority of plan sponsors want to terminate their frozen plans quickly, but don’t have sufficient assets to do so,” said Cecil Hemingway, U.S. Retirement Practice leader with Aon Consulting, in the release. “Survey participants told us they made the design changes associated with closing their pension plans (soft freeze) or ending future benefit accruals (hard freeze). However, without addressing the investment paradigm, they are leaving themselves open to significant future risk. Those shifting investment strategies are addressing the risks still inherent in their pension plans, while getting their plans as well funded as quickly as possible.”

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Beyond modifying the pension plan’s investment strategies, 68% have reviewed the expected future cash needs of their pension plans and found that additional cuts, outside the pension plan, will likely need to be made.

Conversely, the survey revealed that 19% of organizations currently do not have plans to revise their investment strategies as a lead-in to plan termination. Instead, these companies are retaining their current investment structure or moving away from a low-risk, low-volatility structure so they can capture some of the gain they believe will come about in the near future.

A copy of the report is available here.

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