Author: LMI Newsdesk

The Ockham Pension Scheme has completed a £110m ($138m) buy-in with retirement specialists Just Group. The Ockham Pension Scheme is sponsored by insurer LV=, and the deal secures benefits for about 700 members. This is the third buy-in deal which has been sponsored by LV=, following the £40m full buy-in with Rothesay of the Teachers Assurance Group Pension Scheme in 2019, and the conversion of the LV= Employee Pension Scheme’s longevity swap into a £800m buy-in with Standard Life in 2020. LCP was appointed as de-risking adviser to the trustee, with Redington providing investment advice on the asset transfer. A&O…

The pension fund of UK retailer Next has agreed a £510m ($643m) full scheme buy-in with bulk purchase annuity (BPA) specialist Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). This is the second deal between the two parties and follows a £100m buy-in in 2018. The completion of this new transaction means that a total of 3,600 pensioners and deferred members have now been transferred to PIC. The Next scheme trustee was advised on all aspects of the buy-in by LCP. Legal advice was provided to the trustee by Herbert Smith Freehills. Hymans Robertson and Shoosmiths advised the scheme sponsor Next plc and CMS…

M&G has announced its third bulk purchase annuity (BPA) deal since it re-entered the UK market in September 2023. On 15th March, M&G entered into a £309m ($390m) premium BPA deal with a UK-based entity. In line with the firm’s first transactions, the identity of the ceding firm was not revealed in the deal’s announcement. In its full year results, M&G also said that it is aiming to achieve up to £1.5bn in BPA sales a year from now. M&G was formed from the demerger of M&G Prudential in 2019, with the UK insurance business becoming part of M&G. Prudential…

RGA has inked a JPY700bn ($4.6bn) longevity focussed asset-intensive reinsurance deal with Japan Post Insurance Company. The deal will see an RGA affiliate provide coinsurance for an in-force block of Japan Post’s individual life annuities. RGA said in a release announcing the deal that it was “a first-of-its-kind coinsurance transaction in Japan.”. While asset-backed reinsurance deals in Europe and North America have been at record levels in recent years off the back of high levels of pension risk transfer activity, this trend has not been apparent in the Asia Pacific market. This is changing. In December last year, the International…

Pension scheme consolidator Clara Pensions has signed its second superfund deal after making a £600m ($786m) agreement with the Debenhams Pension Scheme. The Debenhams Pension Scheme has been under assessment by the UK’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF) since its parent company went bankrupt in 2019. Under the superfund deal, 10,000 scheme members will be transferred to Clara Pensions. Under the terms of the transaction, £4m in back-payments will be paid to members who received reduced pensions during the PPF assessment period, when member benefits were aligned to PPF Compensation levels. The scheme trustees were advised by Vidett, the specialist administration…

Legal & General Retirement America (LGRA) and RGA have teamed up to complete a $700m pension risk transfer with utility provider First Energy. The retiree lift-out was executed in December and covers about 2,000 retired members, equal to roughly 8% of the company’s total pension liability associated with its former generation subsidiaries. LGRA is lead administrator and will be fully responsible for the service and administration of all participants transferred as part of the transaction. LGRA started administering the pensions on 5 March. Aon and K&L Gates advised FirstEnergy on the transaction. RGA has been active in the US PRT sector…

Lloyds Banking Group is selling its c.£6bn Scottish Widows in-force bulk annuity portfolio to Rothesay. The business to be transferred covers the pension benefits of approximately 42,000 people. The acquisition of the Scottish Widows portfolio represents Rothesay’s sixth acquisition of in-force annuities. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is initially structured as a reinsurance agreement for the in-force bulk annuity portfolio, with a Part VII process to follow next year. “I am delighted that Lloyds Banking Group has chosen Rothesay as the long-term home for its bulk annuity business and look forward to welcoming our new policyholders from…

The pension risk transfer (PRT) market in the UK exceeded £50bn in aggregate volume in 2023, a new record, according to consultancy firm, Hymans Robertson. The firm has analysed 2023 full year results from a majority of insurers, and says that over 254 transactions took place last year with an average size of around £190m, with over 158 transactions transacting in just the second half of the year. “Last year (2023) was an incredibly busy year for the risk transfer market as many defined benefit pension schemes used their improved funding levels to target whole-scheme buy-in transactions,” said James Mullins,…

US telecoms firm Verizon has inked a deal with Prudential Financial and RGA that will see $5.9bn of pension liabilities transferred to the (re)insurance firms. The pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction covers 56,000 retirees and their beneficiaries who started receiving benefits before 1 January 2023. The members will be drawn from the Verizon Management Pension Plan and the Verizon Pension Plan for Associates The obligations have been split almost 50:50 between the two carriers. However, Prudential will assume 100% of obligations in a certain number of unspecified jurisdictions. The Prudential Insurance Company of America, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, will…

Insurance and pensions provider Royal London has announced that it has been preparing to enter the UK’s booming bulk annuity market. The firm announced its 2023 results on 8 March, with the top line being a profit share of £163m, up from £155m in 2022, to be shared in April 2024 with over two million eligible customers who have life and pensions policies with Royal London. But the talking point for the pension risk transfer market in the UK was a bullet point further down the press release, that stated that the firm: “Extended our annuity capabilities in advance of…