Mercer

One in four employers have reduced their benefit costs by implementing a flexible benefits scheme, Mercer says.

Overall investment manager search activity increased in the UK during the first nine months of the year, Mercer says.

UK - Overall investment manager search activity increased in the UK during the first nine months of the year in a sign activity is returning to pre-credit crunch levels, Mercer said.

Investment returns are becoming dominated by the emerging markets, Mercer says.

FRANCE - Investment returns are becoming dominated by the emerging markets, Mercer said.

In recent times structured products have increasingly grown more attractive to Australian superannuation funds - a trend that is set to contune, as Rachel Alembakis reports

The next government must drastically simplify pensions legislation to enable the development of shared-risk schemes as a logical alternative to defined benefit, Mercer says.

US - The median corporate and public pension funds posted positive returns in the third quarter, with results of 12.1% and 11.7%, respectively, according to data compiled by Mercer.

UK - Uncertainty in inflation assumptions may have led FTSE 350 companies to collectively overstate or understate their pension liabilities by as much as £40bn (US$59.4bn), according to Mercer.

Companies under pressure from the economic environment are increasingly looking to outsource pensions administration to reduce costs, Mercer says.