Watson Wyatt will spin off its North America multi-employer retirement business to two new companies.
The specific plans affected are Taft Hartley plans in the United States and private sector, negotiated costs, trusteed plans in Canada.
The companies, Horizon Actuarial Services in the U.S. and PBI Actuarial Consultants in Canada, will be owned and operated by current Watson Wyatt associates. These associates, who focus on multi-employer retirement plans, will move to the new companies over the next several months.
Watson Wyatt will have no ownership stake in either company, but will receive a percentage of the new companies’ revenues for the next five years.
“Multi-employer retirement work is a specialized area, better handled by a group of professionals dedicated specifically to that market,” says Gene Wickes, global director of benefits consulting at Watson Wyatt. “Similar to our spin-off of public pension fund retirement work earlier this decade, this transition makes good strategic sense.”
The transition will affect approximately 70 multi-employer retirement clients and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2008.
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