Aon Launches New Trustee Service

Aon Consulting, a pension, benefits and HR consulting firm, has launched a specialist trustee service that provides dedicated support for covenant assessments of sponsoring employers. To drive this new offering, Aon has appointed Anthony Light, who brings with him over 25 yearsí financial experience.

In response to the increased burden on trustees, and to complement its existing services to trustees, Aon Consulting will now offer a covenant assessment service. Previously, this type of service had been mainly provided by accountancy firms. In addition to offering a full independent assessment for trustees, Aon will provide support to help trustees understand some of the complexities around the financial elements of the assessment and the necessary advice to translate the analysis into what appropriate steps the trustees should be taking.

As a result of the 2004 Pensions Act, it is necessary for trustees of defined benefit pension schemes to undertake a thorough covenant assessment of their sponsoring employer. Trustees are required to evaluate the employerís ability to continue funding scheme benefits in order to, amongst other things, negotiate appropriate funding arrangements and a recovery plan in relation to the scheme deficit. This means that trustees must be fully knowledgeable of the financial position of the employer.

Taking the helm of this new service will be newly appointed consultant, Anthony Light. As the former European Financial Controller of Ford Retail and with over 25 yearsí financial experience, he has been brought on board specifically to build Aonís new covenant assessment service. Anthony joined Aon at the end of 2007, and has played a critical role in helping shape the framework of the service and getting it ready to launch.

Paul McGlone, principal & actuary at Aon Consulting said: ìThis is an exciting development for Aon, as a covenant assessment capability provides an important pillar of advice to complement our actuarial and investment services. We have seen over the past year an increase in trustee activity around careful monitoring of sponsoring employer covenants. Whilst we already offer valuable trustee services, it made sense to extend our support into this area.

ìTo ensure the success of this new service, it is essential we have on board the right expertise and I am pleased that Anthony was keen to join our team and take up the challenge of developing this exciting new offering.î