Aon expects to contribute $122m to global pension plans

In 2020, the Dublin-based company contributed $92 million, $8 million and $20 million to its U.S., U.K. and other major pension plans, respectively

Aon expects to contribute nearly $95 million, $8 million and $19 million to its U.S., U.K. and other major pension plans, respectively, in 2021.

In 2020, the Dublin-based company contributed $92 million, $8 million and $20 million to its U.S., U.K. and other major pension plans, respectively.

As of Dec. 31, Aon had $2.276 billion in U.S. pension plan assets and $3.38 billion in benefit obligations, for a funding ratio of 67.3%, which was 64.7% higher than the year before. The company had $6.65 billion in U.K. defined benefit (DB) plans and benefit obligations of $5.41 billion, for a funding ratio of 123%, which was 124.7% lower than the year before. Aon's other major plans had $1.497 billion in assets as of Dec. 31 and benefit obligations of $1.542 billion, for a funding ratio of 97.1%, down from 93.7% the year before.

For the U.S. pension plans, the discount rate was between 1.74% and 2.45% for 2020, compared with between 2.72% and 3.17% for 2019. The discount rate for the U.K. plans was 1.45% for 2020 vs. 2.09% for 2019. And for Aon's other major pension plans, the discount rate was between 0.38% and 2.47% for 2020, compared with between 0.91% and 3.1% for 2019.

For the U.S. pension plans, the allocation was 41.4% fixed income, 40% equities, 15.2% other investments and the rest in cash. The asset allocation for Aon’s U.K. plan assets as of Dec. 31 was 74.4% fixed income, 22.8% other investments (including real estate), 2.7% cash and the rest in equities. The allocation for other major plans was 68.3% fixed income, 24.4% equities, 4.9% other investments and the rest in cash.