OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2012. As longer life-spans place increasing pressure on pension systems around the world, Amy Kessler, senior vice president and head of Longevity Reinsurance for Prudential Retirement joined leading industry experts, regulators and organizations in Geneva, Switzerland at the Life and Pensions “Four Pillars” Conference.  Hosted by The Geneva Association to focus on the future of retirement, the “Four Pillars” include the primary means by which retirement security can be achieved: social security, pensions, personal savings and employment in retirement.
 
The Geneva Association identifies fundamental trends and strategic issues where insurance plays a substantial role or which influence the insurance sector. Conference participants, including Professor Elsa Fornero, Italian Minister of Labor, Social Policies and Equal Opportunities and Bruno Pfister, CEO of SwissLife, gathered to consider a broad range of alternatives and will discuss how current global economic and political conditions may impact retirement systems over the next 25 years.
 
Kessler spoke at the conference and focused on the many ways the insurance community can help defined benefit plan sponsors achieve a more sustainable risk position than they have today. Longevity insurance is one way to manage longevity risk (or the risk that plan participants will live longer than expected). Longevity insurance is a technique pension funds are starting to employ as they recognize that their current risk position is unsustainable.
 
 “The insurance community can offer pension risk transfer solutions that transfer pension risk away from the plan sponsor and create real retirement security for plan participants” said Kessler. “In addition, for plan sponsors that don’t wish to transfer all of their risk, the insurance community can offer low risk, low volatility asset management solutions and longevity insurance, which combine to create a more sustainable risk position than most pension plans have today.”
 
During Life and Pensions The Four Pillars: The Next 25 Years, Conference attendees -- academics, insurance companies, international organizations, and leading governmental officials -- explored the historical challenges on the horizon to global retirement systems and discussed ways to raise global public awareness about the crisis facing retirement funding for populations living longer and healthier lives.
 
Established in 1973, The Geneva Association, officially the "International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics", is based in Geneva, Switzerland and is a non-profit organization funded by its members.

 Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and non-profit organizations. Services include state-of-the-art record keeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee investment education and communications, and trustee services. With over 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of over 3.5 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has USD  251.6 billion in retirement account values as of September 30, 2012. Retirement products and services are provided by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company(PRIAC), Hartford, CT, or its affiliates.
 
Reinsurance contracts are issued by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company (PRIAC), Hartford, CT 06103, as an unlicensed foreign reinsurer. PRIAC is not authorized or regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK or the Office of the Superintendant of Financial Institution in Canada and the Financial Services Commission in Ontario and does not conduct business in the United Kingdom or Canada or provide direct insurance to any individual or entity therein.