A defined contribution pension plan designed to benefit you and your employees 

We offer defined contribution (DC) pension plans and retirement solutions, including outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) services in many countries around the world. We can help you design, plan and manage customized DC plans or implement a fully outsourced solution that aims to help you deliver on your business objectives while addressing the retirement needs of your workforce.

Implementing a defined contribution pension strategy 

A defined contribution (DC) plan aims to minimize a firm’s exposure to the pension risk, long-term financial uncertainty and volatility that are inherent in traditional defined benefit (DB) plans. However, DC plans can be complex and burdensome, and bring new risks and responsibilities. As well as investments, employers need to consider governance, risk, member engagement and retirement readiness.

Building your optimal strategy starts with design and implementation and then involves managing or outsourcing the delivery of a plan that aligns your organizational objectives with workforce demographics. To maximize the return on your time, effort and contributions made to the plan, it's important for employers to optimize retirement outcomes for employees. Engaging tools could help employees model their retirement outcomes according to changes in investment strategy, retirement age and contribution rates.

Investment responsibilities of defined contribution pension plan providers

We can help you find an optimal pension vehicle and investment structure that either is managed by your in-house teams or has certain elements outsourced to a third-party specialist. We can also suggest products that we believe will provide the right level of choice for employees, while staying aligned to company objectives.

As employees reach various life milestones, their choice of investment strategy may change. We can help you establish a DC investment structure that provides the option for flexible asset allocation and balances risk and expected return at all stages of members’ working lives.

We can leverage our extensive and global industry research to provide you with tailored advice on investment manager and fund selection to support your chosen strategy. We also advise on emerging market trends and opportunities, along with new product innovation.

We can help you offer employees an optimized investment strategy, finding the appropriate mix of expected return, risk and diversification. We benchmark manager performance and fees, enabling you to identify any areas where changes could improve outcomes for employees.

We can help you develop a financial wellness program that engages employees and helps them reach their goals for every stage of their financial lives.

We can help you monitor your DC plans to ensure you stay on top of take-up rates, contribution levels, investment choices, investment manager performance and any other provider performance. We can also help you with compliance tasks. 

Building an optimal defined contribution strategy

  • Do you have access to robust investment research?
    We continually investigate, test and monitor investment managers and products, around the world, to provide you with the most up-to-date information and ideas.
  • Have you sought advice from an investment professional?
    Whether you want to streamline your plan or determine the right investment strategies to adopt, we can provide sound advice and guidance to help you optimize what you offer your employees and navigate the global provider landscape.
  • Have you considered third-party solutions?
    We can help you reduce the management and compliance burden associated with running your own self-administered plan, which could involve moving elements of managing the plan to third party packaged solutions tailored to your organization, and employees.
Investment trends

Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2022

We benchmark 44 retirement income systems around the world, highlighting strengths and weaknesses.
Download this report

Defined contribution pension plan solutions

We can help you deliver customized defined contribution (DC) plans that align with your business needs while providing your employees with a flexible investment opportunity. We can also support you with all aspects of DC pension provision, from investment to administration, enabling you to focus resources on your core business. Some solutions differ from region to region. Contact us to find out what is available where you are.

  • Master Trust 

    We offer master trust solutions in Australia, the UK, and Ireland and collaborate with Equiom Fiduciary Services (Middle East) Limited in the UAE by providing investment advisory and solutions and with Alexander Forbes in South Africa by providing investment solutions.

  • Mercer Wise 401(k) 

    A fully outsourced retirement plan solution that seeks to reduce the complexities, costs and fiduciary risk associated with managing a defined contribution plan. Mercer acts as a named fiduciary responsible for the operation and investments for the plan. We offer the 401(k) in the United States.

  • Mercer Wise PEP

    A pooled employer plan that seeks to lower plan costs, improve access to innovative investment management, and transfer administrative and fiduciary burdens to a third party. We can help you evaluate the potential benefits and drawbacks and determine the best vehicle for you. We offer Mercer Wise PEP in the United States. 

How outsourcing your commitments could help you
achieve your goals 

A growing number of employers are choosing to work with specialist investment providers to help them manage their defined contribution (DC) pension commitments. While this approach has many names around the world – outsourced CIO, OCIO, delegated solutions, fiduciary management – the aim is the same: to offer solutions that enable plan providers to meet their goals more efficiently.

Through an outsourced model, employers and other providers maintain control over the critical decisions, such as strategy, plan design and asset allocation, leaving the technical and tactical tasks, including investment manager selection and monitoring, due diligence and oversight, to a third-party specialist like Mercer. We offer a range of outsourced pension and retirement solutions tailored to our client needs all around the world. Contact us to find out more.

Related insights

    It's all here: MercerInsight® Community

    Simplify your search. Get strategic research tailored to your interests from thought leaders across the investment industry, including Mercer and hundreds of third‑party publishers. Membership is complimentary, and it takes seconds to sign up.
    Join the community

    Contact our defined contribution specialists

    We will connect you with specialists in your region/country.
    See our Important Notices