Swiss Life - Multinational Pooling Basics

The concept of pooling goes back to the fundamental insurance principle of spreading risk. We take the insurance contracts of your company's subsidiaries insured with Swiss Life Network Partners around the world, and combine them into an international portfolio, called a pool. Multinational pooling solutions come in two main variations: Company-Specific or Multi-Client.

When local employee benefit contracts are not pooled, the balance in each country is retained by the local insurer, which uses it to cover future risk and to meet claims incurred by other clients.

When these same contracts are pooled, the local Network Partners inform Swiss Life Network in Zurich about the local results. Our actuaries collect this data into an international profit and loss account for your pool.

The international dividend is effectively the difference between the local balances and the risk retention. To see the type of information we deliver annually to multinational headquarters, please ask for a sample international profit and loss account.

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There is absolutely no additional cost for clients enjoying the advantages of an international pooling program.

Here is a simplified financial comparison of a multinational's employee benefit plans, illustrating the clear difference between managing contracts separately and combining them into a multinational pool:

This flow chart illustrates how the business process works between the Swiss Life Network, Network Partners and the client.

Your pooled local contracts are internationally experience rated via an international profit and loss account.

The conditions for participating in multinational pooling solutions are very straightforward.

The Swiss Life Network's benefit from pooling is the access to a sophisticated segment of multinational clients and their subsidiaries around the globe.