Multinational companies normally have many insured benefit programs around the world. In each country, insured programs are established according to local legal requirements and competitive practice. While each of the insurance programs may be the most competitive in its own market, there can be limitations which prevent realizing optimal efficiency.

Multinational pooling enables the principles of experience rating to be applied to the employee benefit insurance arrangements of a multinational company. Provided that the subsidiary companies use insurers associated with an insurance "network", a "multinational dividend" can be paid based on the actual combined experience of those subsidiaries.

The primary objective of multinational pooling is a reduction in overall insurance costs, resulting from the receipt of multinational dividends. These dividends arise in years when experience is favourable. If experience is unfavourable, the worst that can happen is the cancellation of the dividend, perhaps for several years. However, there are a number of other benefits to be gained, in addition to cost savings, including: centralised annual accounting and communication, and relaxed underwriting limits.