Mercer has developed the FSM Pro tool, an online platform offering Canadian DB plan sponsors comprehensive funding and plan information.
Accessible 24-7 from anywhere around the globe, FSM Pro aims to help sponsors make better decisions—particularly during high-volatility periods.
Offering daily updates, the tool automatically monitors a pension plan’s funded position on an accounting basis. For 2015, it will also monitor a plan’s position on a funding basis (including solvency and windup).
By tracking daily movements in assets and liabilities, the tool provides a high-level attribution of changes in the funding position of a pension plan. This can help highlight the drivers of plan financial risk.
FSM Pro’s modelling functionality allows users to vary key assumptions—such as discount rate, salary increases, mortality and expected return on plan assets—in order to forecast future accounting balance sheets as well as profit and loss figures.
The tool also allows users to model the approximate impact of high-level changes to investment strategy, as well as estimate funding requirements for up to 20 years in the future.
FSM Pro is available on both an iPad and Mobile app, and it’s free of charge from the Apple App Store.