Welcome to Issue 1, 2010 of Retirement, Risk & Finance Perspective, Mercer's home for thought-provoking insights on retirement and pension issues facing multinational companies.

In this issue:

The business case for a DC plan

As employers around the world seek competitive advantage, many are reassessing the costs, risks and benefits of all their business activities, including their defined contribution retirement plans. In this article, we discuss how viewing DC plans as a business tool can enable enterprises to measure the real business value of their plans.

Craig Burnett

Pension success from good governance in India and Indonesia

In India and Indonesia, many companies have chosen to manage employee pension benefits independently. In this article, we discuss the benefits to both employees and employers of these self-managed funds and the importance of good governance in realizing those benefits and in ensuring compliance with guidelines.

Jagadish Salunkhe Jovita Suwarso

Improving end-of-service accounting in the GCC region

To improve corporate governance, many companies in the Middle East have adopted International Financial Reporting Standards to prepare their financial statements, but may have missed some issues relating to end-of-service benefits. In this article, we review why companies in the GCC region, which are growing at an unprecedented rate, should benefit from accounting for these liabilities using IAS 19 standards.

Mazen Abukhater

 Learn about global online training

Upcoming coverage:

In the first half of 2010, we will share some insights about the treatment of the trends of increasing life expectancy in different countries and look at available solutions to mitigate this growing risk. We will also continue to describe the latest trends for mobile employees, including localization, and provide some highlights from a study completed by Mercer colleagues into retirement plan designs for the future.

Retirement, Risk & Finance Perspective is intended to stimulate debate around the challenges in designing and developing a global retirement benefits strategy. You are welcome to join the debate; contact us with any comments or questions.