The recovery of the global economy is being restrained by a whole host of factors, and the impact is being felt in benefit programs around the world.
Natural and man-made disasters ranging from drought and SARS to war and corporate accounting scandals have hampered the resurgence of financial markets worldwide. This, in turn, has resulted in the international reshaping of benefit policies.
In late 2002, Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that employers were considering benefit cost reduction as a strategy to increase efficiency. Mercer found that the rev