< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb
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Amy Kessler
Head of Longevity Reinsurance / Prudential Financial
Last year’s rank: 21
Amy Kessler has long been an evangelist for risk transfer transactions in which pensions shift their liabilities to an insurance company like her employer, Prudential Financial. Now she believes her work is paying off. While she remains an advocate for pension funds to de-risk their portfolios, she is also pushing for individuals to understand their own longevity risk and what it means for their financial plans. “Ten years ago no one really understood the longevity risk that pension funds were facing,” says Kessler, 48. “Today people actually get it. People are living longer lives, and that’s wonderful, but it’s also a very big financial obligation for companies sponsoring pension plans. And for folks not in pension plans, it’s a very big financial consideration as they prep for their own retirement.” This year Timken Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. bought group annuities from Pru, which also signed its first deal to provide longevity reinsurance to the U.K.’s Pension Insurance Corp. Kessler is working with companies to layer a longevity-risk strategy on top of what the industry calls liability-driven investments, which are designed to manage volatility and risk. Without a longevity-risk strategy, she explains, companies aren’t building in enough upside to cover people’s longer lives. Kessler’s global perspective is helping U.S. companies look beyond their domestic peers. “There are global multinational companies that are de-risking, so now activity in Europe becomes directly relevant to anyone in that peer group,” she says. “We’re trying to help people see the connection between their corporate finance good health and their pension fund.” Kessler spent 17 years in capital markets at Bear Stearns Cos. and Lazard. She joined Pru in 2009 and has led $34 billion in international reinsurance transactions for organizations including British Airways and Rolls-Royce Holdings. Last year she worked on the largest-ever longevity-risk transfer, for the BT Pension Scheme. Kessler is now leading the launch of reinsurance for pensions in Canada and the Netherlands.
The 2015 Pension 40
1. Bruce Rauner 2. John & Laura Arnold 3. Chris Christie 4. Randi Weingarten 5. Phyllis Borzi |
6. Kevin de León 7. Alejandro García Padilla 8. Laurence Fink 9. Rahm Emanuel 10. Sean McGarvey |
11. John Kline 12. J. Mark Iwry 13. Damon Silvers 14. Jeffrey Immelt 15. Joshua Gotbaum |
16. Robin Diamonte 17. Mark Mullet 18. Terry O’Sullivan 19. Raymond Dalio 20. Ted Wheeler |
21. Thomas Nyhan 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman 23. Randy DeFrehn 24. Robert O’Keef 25. Caitlin Long |
26. Kenneth Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend 29. Ian Lanoff 30. Joshua Rauh |
31. Ted Eliopoulos 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle 33. Teresa Ghilarducci 34. Denise Nappier 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. |
36. Hank Kim 37. Paul Singer 38. Bailey Childers 39. Amy Kessler 40. Judy Mares |
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