Download Life Risk News Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2025
LISA recently provided funding to support the production of Cashing Out, a documentary from New York-based filmmaker Matt Nadel that tells the stories of three people who had a direct link to the viatical settlement industry in the US in the 1980s and 1990s – the beginnings of the industry that has evolved into what is now the life settlement market. Greg Winterton spoke to Nadel, Bryan Nicholson, Executive Director at LISA, and life settlement market veteran Scott Page to get their thoughts on the potential impact of the film in New Documentary Shines a Light on the Origins of the Life Settlement Market.
The planned acquisition of life insurer Just Group by Canadian investment company Brookfield, and the £2.4bn takeover of Pension Insurance Corporation by Apollo-backed Athora underlines growing interest in the UK’s pension-risk transfer market from North American investors. Mark McCord spoke to Arik Rashkes, Partner and Head of Financial Institutions at Solomon Partners and Marc Storan, Head of Insurance Investment Strategy, Insurance and Financial Services at Hymans Robertson, to get their views on the trend in UK Pension Risk Transfer Market Driving Increased Interest from North American Investors.
New research suggests that walking 7,000 steps each day is associated with reductions in the risk of several serious health outcomes. Greg Winterton spoke to Mary Bahna-Nolan, Senior Director, Insurance Consulting & Technology at WTW and Steven Baxter, Chief Data Scientist at Club Vita to get their thoughts on the topic in 7,000 Steps Each Day Keeps the Doctor Away. But What Is the Impact on Insurers and Pensions?
GMP Equalisation is an increasing bottleneck in a defined benefit pension scheme’s journey to buy-out. Often avoided or deferred during earlier stages of transactions, delays in completing GMPe projects is creating additional uncertainty and costs to schemes and insurers looking to reach buyout. Kelvin Wilson, Director, Pension Risk Transfer at Heywood, offers his views on the issue in Breaking the Bottleneck: Why GMP Equalisation and Data Challenges Are Delaying Buyouts in 2025, a guest article this month.
Both life expectancy providers and financial advisors are deeply embedded in the longevity and mortality world, but the two groups rarely talk to each other. Chris Conway, Chief Development Officer at ISC Services, explains how the life settlement market, often overlooked by mainstream financial planning, can provide a unique lens into the lifespans of high-net-worth seniors in What the Financial Advisor Community Can Learn from the Life Settlement Market, our second guest article this month.
The pension risk transfer market in the UK has delivered plenty of talking points in 2025 so far in what has been another busy year for the space. Greg Winterton spoke to Pretty Sagoo, Managing Director of Defined Benefit Solutions at Just Group, to get a risk buyer’s perspective on the current state of the market and the outlook for the balance of the year for this month’s Q&A.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that some Dutch defined benefit pension schemes are moving to bulk purchase annuity buy-outs to sidestep recently introduced rules that require all DB plans to runoff and switch to defined contributions frameworks by the start of 2028. Mark McCord spoke to André de Vries, Vice President, Business Development, EMEA at Reinsurance Group of America to get his thoughts on the outlook for the PRT market in the country in Reform Spurs a Steady Drumbeat of New Pension Risk Transfer Deals in the Netherlands.
I hope you enjoy the latest issue of Life Risk News.
Chris Wells
Managing Editor
Life Risk News
