Mercer to offer RiskFirst’s PFaroe pensions risk management platform to clients

Mercer has signed an agreement with RiskFirst to offer the risk management platform PFaroe® to clients and pension schemes. PFaroe is a powerful web-based platform allowing defined benefit (DB) pension schemes direct access to a broad range of analytics for the purpose of evaluating the risks affecting their schemes and performing real-time scenario stress testing. For those clients seeking access to the analytics the platform provides, Mercer will use PFaroe to support their consulting work across all disciplines of defined benefit pensions – retirement planning, investment consulting and fiduciary management – to provide a holistic and cohesive solution.

Alan Baker, Partner and UK Head of DB Risk at Mercer, comments: “In the face of ongoing volatility and other pressures, companies and trustees are looking for innovative ways to manage their pension scheme liabilities. Mercer has always tried to be ahead of the curve in meeting those needs through innovative solutions such as Mercer’s Pension Risk Exchange or SmartDB. While we continue to invest in our own tools and innovations, this more formal relationship with RiskFirst provides a very valuable alternative for those clients looking to make use of PFaroe. We believe we are the first major global employee benefit consultancy to make use of RiskFirst’s market-leading platform in this way and we are already working with a number of clients to implement the product.”

Matthew Seymour, CEO, RiskFirst, says: “Innovation is deeply seeded within Mercer's ethos, and here they are demonstrating that by not "reinventing the wheel", but rather by adapting and developing new operating practices to meet the needs of their clients.”

Seymour adds: “This is a significant advance for a number of pension plans who have wanted to use PFaroe, but have been keen to work with one of the ’Big 3’ benefit consultants to provide the advice and direction they want. They can now have both and I am confident that PFaroe will be a valuable addition to Mercer’s existing risk management tool kit.”

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Notes to Editors

About Mercer

Mercer is a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments. Mercer helps clients around the world advance the health, wealth and careers of their most vital asset – their people. Mercer’s more than 20,000 employees are based in 43 countries and the firm operates in over 140 countries. Mercer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC) a global professional services firm offering clients advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy and people. Marsh is a leader in insurance broking and risk management; Guy Carpenter is a leader in providing risk and reinsurance intermediary services; Mercer is a leader in talent, health, retirement and investment consulting; and Oliver Wyman is a leader in management consulting. With annual revenue of $13 billion and approximately 60,000 colleagues worldwide, Marsh & McLennan Companies provides analysis, advice and transactional capabilities to clients in more than 130 countries. The Company is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and making a positive impact in the communities in which it operates. Visit www.mmc.com for more information and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @MMC_Global.

About RiskFirst

RiskFirst (formerly PensionsFirst) is a financial technology business that provides intuitive, user-friendly risk analytics and reporting. Its core product PFaroe® is web-based, available anytime and anywhere, and allows users to evaluate risk from multiple perspectives and to perform real-time scenario stress testing. Since being launched, PFaroe has established itself as the industry standard benchmark for risk management technology. Over 1,200 pension plans and $750 billion of pension liabilities are now modelled on RiskFirst’s technology. For more information please go to www.riskfirst.com

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