Bringing clarity to pension funds
Driven by increased challenges regarding risks management of pension funds, stricter legal regulations and stronger supervision by authorities, the recent trend in Swiss pension is to aim for better governance standards. This can be achieved by moving away from a compliance only approach to a more dynamic approach, enabling pension fund boards to increase their effectiveness, improve the structure of the Board, and enhance the experience of stakeholders with better standards.
Under this approach, we can better reflect a pension fund’s unique structure, rather than using a fully standardized compliance only approach. Moreover, the recent Pandemic has paved the way to develop more agile practices, challenging the current status quo.
These developments suggest that pension fund boards carefully examine each aspect of their pension fund management, including actuarial, legal, investment and communication aspects, with the aim to reach a better level of standards. In the process, there will be a significant number of key areas and themes to examine. In short, a more dynamic driven governance process helps bring clarity and make your pension fund resilient, also in the face of any extraordinary events.
A solution tailored to you
To support you, Willis Towers Watson has developed the 360°Benefits I Governance Check. This unique tool focuses on six areas, which are all key to successful management of the pension fund. It also provides a structured way to think about the pension fund, bringing clarity to better governance.
Our unique 360°Benefits I Governance Check gives you the opportunity to take a comprehensive look at the management of your pension fund. The six dedicated areas are further developed into twenty-three major themes and, for each of the themes, we help you grade and map the current level of governance. It usually ranges from legal minimum and best practice to market leading level as shown below.
Developing a culture of smart governance
Adopting a culture of dynamic governance will streamline pension fund management, improve stakeholder’s experiences, better organise tasks management, and allow pension fund boards and employers to better manage traditional risks associated with their pension fund.
The 360°Benefits I Governance Check will help you to make an initial objective assessment of your current level of governance which forms the basis assessing your status quo. In a workshop, we can then present outcomes and discuss the results with you against your personal desired level of excellence and considering best market practices.
By addressing your specific situation and objectives, it offers distinctive insights into possible opportunities leading to better standards. We then help you plan and implement specifications enhancing your pension fund. This approach will also address the level of cost – should be sustainable – and further limit any reputational risk of running the pension fund.
Getting started with us The supervisory authorities’ stance on governance means that due care is needed to adopt adequate standards, certainly above minimum compliance. 360°Benefits I Governance Check helps you to make sure you are doing enough and helps you reaching the right level of governance for you.
Our unique 360°Benefits I Governance Check also provides:
- Clear and visual representation of your current situation based on 6 key criteria;
- Easy to use and to understand the process;
- Clear evidence of pension fund board ownership and duty of care;
- An objective assessment; and
- Outputs leading to the development of a clear action plan
Helping you to reach three main goals as shown below.
- Helps you identify and adopt better standards for governance and risk management
- Helps you transition from a compliance only to a more dynamic governance approach
- Helps you define and implement a management structure tailored to your pension fund with the right level of governance for you
