PennPSERS filed the complaint Aug. 1 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Commerce Division, following its writ of summons in December 2022 and said in a statement at the time it "seeks to hold Aon accountable for the errors it made related to PSERS' 2020 risk share analysis and recover damages to compensate PSERS for the significant and ongoing harm Aon has caused."
In March 2021, PennPSERS commissioned a report from law firm Womble Bond Dickinson after its board was notified that the investment reporting figures used for an annual employer contribution rate increase contained a calculation error. According to that report, Aon Investments USA took responsibility for the error, which involved incorrect public markets investment returns in April 2015 that was only discovered by PennPSERS staff in 2020 following Aon's release of nine-year investment return data.
In April 2021, the board hired Verus "to provide interim investment oversight consulting services," while the system was under internal investigation, as well as a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that closed in August 2022 with no civil or criminal charges filed.
In PennPSERS' Dec. 15 statement, the system said "In anticipation of PSERS' next statutorily mandated risk share analysis due Dec. 31, 2023, PSERS began the process of transitioning Aon's work to a new consultant, beginning in November of 2022, allowing for appropriate overlap with Aon to ensure continuity and a smooth transition. That transition was recently completed. At the Dec. 15 board meeting, the PSERS' board formally adopted the results of this year's risk share analysis and released them to the public."
The statement said PennPSERS will decline to comment further due to the pending litigation. An Aon spokesman also declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
