LONDON, 30 November 2006 - Pension deficits decreased by around 10% over November. This is because of just a small increase in bond yields (corporate bond yields increased by 0.1%). The equity markets remained fairly flat.  Overall deficits are now around 40% lower than they were at the start of the year.

This analysis comes on the back of research by Aon Consulting, a leading pension, benefits and HR consulting firm, who provide a monthly tracker of the scheme deficits of the UK’s 200 largest Defined Benefit (DB) schemes, including all of those in the FTSE100.

Based on the market movements in November, the total estimated deficit for the 200 schemes in Aon’s survey was £46bn at the end of November 2006 compared with £52bn at the end of October 2006, and £72bn as at the end of 2005.  The projection of the deficits is shown graphically below: 

According to Aon, the main factor influencing the deficit has been a rise in bond yields of around 0.1%, which would have decreased the deficit by around £6bn.

Comparative figures for the FTSE-100 companies since the start of the year are as follows:

Commenting on these latest results, Andrew Claringbold, Principal at Aon Consulting said: “FRS17 deficits look as though they will be significantly lower at the end of this year compared to last year.  This is great news for UK companies as at the backend of 2005 pensions deficits under FRS17 had reached an all time high.  However, whilst the markets continue to perform well, UK companies can not afford to become complacent and should be regularly reviewing their investment strategies to ensure that there deficits do not reach the peaks achieved during 2005 and early 2006.”

Notes to editor:

About Aon Consulting

Aon Consulting is a leading human capital consultancy, helping organisations of every size to attract and keep the employees they need. We advise on all aspects of employment, including health-related insurance and risk; employee compensation and pensions; human resource strategy planning; job design and change management; and staff assessment and legal issues. Aon Consulting is a division of Aon, one of the UK’s largest insurance brokers and providers of risk management services and a major force in reinsurance and the UK human capital consulting market.  Aon Consulting Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

About Aon

Aon Corporation is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 46,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.

This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, our ability to consummate the pending sale of the Aon Warranty Group, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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