Pensions - Articles - Aon advises trustees of Kodak Pension Plan on agreement

 Aon Hewitt has announced that it advised the trustees of the Kodak Pension Plan (KPP) on its agreement to set up a new pension scheme for its members.

 The agreement follows a Chapter 11 process for the KPP's US parent, Eastman Kodak Company (EKC), during which the pension plan trustees and their advisers were involved in complex negotiations about the future of the KPP. During this 20 month process, Aon Hewitt provided the trustees with pensions management, scheme secretarial, actuarial, investment, international and communications advice as well as pensions administration services.

 Ben Harris, client relationship manager for Aon Hewitt, and secretary to the Trustee, said:

 "We have worked very closely with the trustees and the Plan's other professional advisers throughout this groundbreaking process. Gaining the Pension Protection Fund's agreement to start the new Kodak Pension Plan after receiving such overwhelming member support for the trustees' proposals, is the best possible outcome we could have hoped for at the start of this process.

 "For Aon Hewitt, this has involved working across a wide range of areas and bringing numerous skills to bear. These have included advising on the benefit design of the new pension scheme, investment scenario modeling, a detailed data cleansing exercise, the production of 15,000 personalised member benefit illustrations, developing extensive communications content, running member roadshows, setting up a member helpline, and much else."

 Ben Harris continued:

 "Overall, it means that we have helped the trustees to achieve their most important objective - to reach a settlement that gave the Plan's members a choice about their benefits, when for a long time the only alternative for members was entry into the PPF."