When: Thursday 27 September 2007 Registration: 16:30 Seminar: 17:00 Drinks reception: 18:30-20:30 Where: Butchers’ Hall, 87 Bartholomew Close London EC1A 7EB Download a copy of the: Presentation (PDF - 931 KB)  Feedback report (PDF - 332 KB)

This is an historic event and has been retained on the website for your information.

The significant financial commitment and risk that a defined benefit pension scheme poses to an employer has been high on the corporate agenda for some time. However, in many cases the management of pensions risk has been considered separately from an employer’s operating and other financial risks.

Corporate finance theory would suggest that the most efficient approach is to consider the various pensions risks in conjunction with an employer’s other risks - taking a holistic approach is most likely to reveal the optimal solution.

On Thursday 27 September 2007 at Butchers’ Hall, EC1, Watson Wyatt’s Corporate Consulting Group will hold a seminar demonstrating how scheme sponsors can manage their pension risks in a holistic way.

The seminar is aimed at those with responsibility for managing pensions and pension risk within sponsors of UK defined benefit pension schemes.

Seminar topics

Establishing a corporate pension risk management framework

John Ball 
Senior corporate consultant, Watson Wyatt

Companies should be establishing a framework for incorporating pensions into their management of corporate risks. Only by taking a holistic approach in which pensions are treated in a consistent way with other financial risks, can the difficult decisions about pensions be put into the appropriate context. John will examine how companies can do this, including:

• setting a risk budget in the context of a company's business and financial objectives
• identifying key pension risks
• evaluating the impact of pension risks in relation to other corporate risks
• how to decide what action to take, if any, to reduce pension risks
• integrating pensions into an ongoing monitoring of financial risk.

Integrating management of investment and longevity risk

Steven Dicker 
Senior corporate consultant, Watson Wyatt

The survey at Watson Wyatt’s last Corporate Pensions Briefing identified longevity risk as the risk from pension provision that concerns corporates most. Recent market developments mean that organisations can start to manage longevity risk alongside investment risk to create a comprehensive, liability-driven, risk management solution. In this session, Steven will consider:

• assessing pension fund Value at Risk (VaR), including longevity risk, consistent with VaR in the business
• the impact of changing mortality on Liability Driven Investment
• the developing market in longevity trading
• choosing an optimal overall strategy for managing pension VaR, as part of overall business VaR.

Including pensions in overall enterprise risk management

David Blackwood 
Former group treasurer, ICI Plc

A number of organisations have recognised the benefits of building pensions into the wider enterprise risk management approach, enabling them to make informed decisions on where risk is taken in the company and in the pension scheme. In this session, drawing on his personal experiences, David will cover:

• pensions as part of the total company balance sheet
• running pensions like a business operation
• the evolving pensions risk choices available to corporates.