The Royal Institute of British Architects 1974 Staff Pension Scheme has completed a £35m bulk purchase annuity buy-in with PIC. The transaction secures the benefits of 168 scheme members.
The Royal Institute of British Architects was established 190 years ago, representing and championing a global community of architects, their practices and aspiring students.
“We’re really pleased to have completed this transaction with PIC. Its team were innovative and flexible as we addressed the complexity of the Scheme’s benefit structure. Fully securing the benefits of our members within the insurance regulatory framework has been our long-term objective, and with RIBA’s support we are proud to have achieved this for our members,” said Ann Rigby, Chair of the Trustees for the Scheme and representing BESTrustees.
“We’re delighted to have been chosen by the Trustees to secure their members’ pensions. The Scheme had a particularly complex benefit structure which required us to work closely with the Trustees to ensure that their needs were met. Tailoring bespoke solutions to complex situations is something that PIC has a long track record of achieving and we are very pleased to have been able to apply our experience to help the Trustees in this instance,” added Jake Stanbridge, Origination Actuary at PIC.
The transaction was led by Aon, with the trustees receiving actuarial and investment advice from Mercer and legal advice from Eversheds Sutherland. Addleshaw Goddard advised PIC.
“Using our Pathway approach (Aon’s streamlined process for bulk annuity transactions on which we partner with Eversheds-Sutherland) made this transaction straightforward, allowing us to focus on the areas that really mattered to the Trustees and enabling insurers to apply some of the innovation more typically seen on bigger transactions to this Scheme – all to the benefit of the members,” said Joanna Davies, Senior Consultant at Aon.
