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Retirement Planning in a Post-Crisis Economy

February 6, 2012 Comments off

Retirement Planning in a Post-Crisis Economy
Source: Towers Watson

Prolonged economic uncertainty and high unemployment have taken a heavy toll on U.S. workers. Few have escaped hits to their retirement savings or to their confidence in being able to retire comfortably. Unsurprisingly, many Americans have become more financially conservative, cutting back on spending and paying more attention to household finances and retirement planning and saving.

As the economic recovery proceeds — albeit in fits and starts — economic satisfaction levels and optimism about retirement are slowly rising as well. Nevertheless, fallout from the crisis lingers in the psyche of American workers, as many remain apprehensive about their economic future generally and about retirement in particular.

This article is the first in a three-part series based on the 2011 Towers Watson Retirement Attitudes Survey highlighting American workers’ attitudes toward their household finances and retirement readiness. The second article will examine how the financial crisis has changed the trade-offs employees are willing to make to reduce their retirement and health care risks. The last article will look at the impact of retirement programs on attracting and retaining employees.

The Talent Management and Rewards Imperative for 2012: Leading Through Uncertain Times

October 31, 2011 Comments off

The Talent Management and Rewards Imperative for 2012: Leading Through Uncertain Times (PDF)
Source: Towers Watson

Despite a volatile economy and high unemployment, almost 60% of North American companies are having trouble attracting critical-skill employees, an increase over 2010. In addition, organizations will continue to face strong pressure to manage costs in the coming year as they experience slow growth in productivity and sales.

These are some of the top findings of the 2011/2012 Towers Watson North American Talent Management and Rewards Survey, conducted in early summer 2011. Findings also showed that a majority of employers are responding to the economy by expecting employees to work longer hours than before the recession and sharply decreasing the rate of increase of merit budgets.

This report focuses on trends in reward and talent management programs, accompanied by our related insights to drive effective design and delivery. We encourage you to consider these concepts in the broader context of your organization’s EVP and total rewards strategy.

Note: To put employer views in context, this report sometimes compares responses to this survey with responses to an unpublished 2011 survey of over 10,000 full-time employees in North America on topics such as total rewards, communication and other work-related issues.

Employers Remain Committed to Offering Health Care Benefits Today but Concerned About Viability of Insurance Exchanges

October 24, 2011 Comments off

Employers Remain Committed to Offering Health Care Benefits Today but Concerned About Viability of Insurance Exchanges
Source: Towers Watson

With many details of health care care reform still unknown, organizations are struggling to develop a long-term health care strategy. To complicate the process even further, employee health care costs continue to rise. To better understand how employers are handling both current cost concerns and development of a health care strategy for the future, Towers Watson conducted a survey of 368 midsize to large U.S. companies in July.

The results reflect respondents’ thinking regarding their 2012 — 2014 health benefit plan decisions and confirm employers’ commitment to offering health care benefits. But respondents also have concerns and questions about the impact of health care reform over the next few years, particularly on the viability of exchanges. Another primary consideration is how their industry peers plan to respond: Nearly four in five employers (78%) plan to monitor other companies’ responses to health care reform and will be influenced by the actions other large employers take regarding ongoing plan sponsorship.

+ Full Report (PDF)

Directors and Officers Liability: 2010 Survey of Insurance Purchasing Trends

February 23, 2011 Comments off

Directors and Officers Liability: 2010 Survey of Insurance Purchasing Trends
Source: Towers Watson

The 2010 Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability survey, the 32nd in a series of studies conducted by Towers Watson, tracks D&O coverage purchasing patterns, providing organizations with critical information on the structure and cost of D&O insurance programs.

Highlights of the 2010 survey include:

  • D&O limit increase. Twenty-one percent of respondents said they had increased their D&O limits compared to their prior D&O policy (versus 12% in 2008), while 75% said their limits had stayed the same (versus 86% in 2008). Only 3% said they had decreased their limits.
  • International coverage. Fifty-three percent of respondents (excluding charities and nonprofits) said their companies have international operations. Of this figure, 47% purchased a local D&O policy in a foreign jurisdiction. This is a marked increase over our 2008 survey results, when only 2% of respondents with international operations purchased a local policy in a foreign jurisdiction.
  • D&O program review. When asked if they had conducted an independent review of their D&O program within the past two years, 54% of respondents said that they had not.
  • Claims. This year’s survey findings suggest increased apprehension over regulatory claims. When asked to rank the types of claims of greatest concern, direct shareholder/investor suits topped the list, followed by regulatory claims and employment-related litigation. The top three types of claims of greatest concern overall were regulatory claims, followed by direct shareholder claims and derivative claims.

+ Full Report (PDF)

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