Willis Towers Watson to contribute $132 million to pension plans in 2021

Willis Towers Watson PLC, London, plans to contribute a total of $132 million to its global pension plans in 2021.

By region, the company plans to contribute $60 million to its U.S. plans, $47 million to the U.K. plans, and a total of $25 million to plans in other regions, according to its 10-K filing with the SEC on Tuesday.

In 2020, Willis Towers Watson contributed $71 million, $66 million and $35 million, respectively, to plans in the U.S., U.K., and other regions.

Other regions include Canada, France, Germany and Ireland, the filing said.

As of Dec. 31, U.S. pension plan assets totaled $4.357 billion, while projected benefit obligations totaled $5.291 billion, for a funding ratio of 82.3%, up from 81.2% a year earlier.

The U.S. discount rate fell to 2.5% as of Dec. 31 from 3.3% the year before.

U.K. pension plan assets of that date totaled $5.767 billion, while the PBO totaled $4.843 billion, for a funding ratio of 119.1%, down from 119.4% the year before.

The U.K. discount rate fell to 1.5% from 2% a year earlier.

Pension plan assets in other regions totaled $684 million, while PBO totaled $955 million, for a funding ratio of 71.6%, up from 69.8% a year earlier.

The discount rate in other regions was 1.7% as of Dec. 31, down from 2.1% the year before.

Complete actual allocation information for all regions was not provided.