Northern Trust Offers US DB Asset Cross-Border Pooling

May 24, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Northern Trust announced a product that allows multinational companies to commingle US defined benefit plan assets with assets from non-US subsidiaries in a single offshore pool.

The Northern Trust ERISA Solution for Cross-Border Pension Pooling allows more multinational companies to capitalize on the benefits of bringing cross-border assets together for investment management purposes, according to the Chicago-based firm. 

By pooling assets from subsidiary pension plans across the globe – including the US – a   multinational can more effectively control manager selection and investment risk, simplify administration, and gain economies of scale, according to the news release.

Among the services Northern Trust said it offers in connection with the new product are:

  • local and global custody services, which it said provide consistent valuation, reporting and control for significant asset pools
  • consolidated multinational headquarters reporting, which it said offers online access to a company’s worldwide pension plan information.

The news release said Northern Trust is implementing tax-transparent vehicles – the Irish Common Contractual Fund (CCF) and the Luxembourg Fonds Commun de Placement (FCP) – for clients to offer global equity mandates through a pooling vehicle to their pension plans worldwide.

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