Global Governance For Retirement Plans

Although retirement plans and schemes are generally jurisdiction specific creatures, the governance of the retirement plans and schemes of multinational companies is very much a global issue. Retirement funds, whether defined contribution plans or defined benefit plans, are essentially large pots of money (frequently in the billions of dollars) located in jurisdictions around the world. These arrangements tend to be heavily regulated and pose numerous risks to the sponsor, including legal and regulatory compliance gaps, participant lawsuits, government investigations, and embezzlement of trust funds. Of further concern are plan funding obligations and material risk to the corporate balance sheet (e.g., the effect of unfunded defined benefit plan liabilities on financial statements and the management of plan assets and liability for possible losses.) At the same time, the arrangements may be tied to various corporate/HR goals, with tensions between a company's desire to