Willis Towers Watson Reaches Settlement With City of Houston

The City of Houston and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) announced that, subject to City Council’s approval, they have settled all litigation related to WTW’s work on behalf of the City of Houston’s pension funds.

The City filed a lawsuit in August 2014 in connection with WTW’s actuarial work for the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund. Specifically, the lawsuit alleged negligence and professional malpractice by WTW for miscalculating the cost of the fund’s existing benefits in 2000 and misrepresenting that the existing benefits provided by the fund could be increased and new benefits could be added without increasing the city’s required contribution rate to the fund.

Under the settlement, the city has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit and to release any potential claims based on WTW’s work for the Houston Municipal Employees’ Pensions System and the Houston Police Officers’ Pension System.

WTW has denied any wrongdoing, and the parties have agreed that the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. The parties said they have settled the dispute in order to avoid the costs and uncertainty of litigation and to put the dispute behind them.