Browsing: 2025 – December
The Blake Lapthorn Pension Fund has secured a £5.7m full scheme bulk purchase annuity buy-out with Aviva. The transaction secures the benefits of all 52 members, comprising 30 deferred members and 22 pensioner members, and covers all of the fund’s liabilities.
Third quarter 2025 US pension risk transfer sales fell 32% year over year, but single-premium buy-in sales jumped 328% in the third quarter to $4.3bn, according to LIMRA’s U.S. Group Annuity Risk Transfer Sales Survey.
The Comet Pension Scheme has completed a £330m full-scheme bulk purchase annuity buy-in transaction with Canada Life. The deal secures the future benefits of 4,500 pension scheme members.
Total US annuity sales increased 5% to $121.2bn in the third quarter of 2025, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of $100+bn in sales and setting a new sales record.
The US pension risk transfer market delivered just $11.5bn in total premium in the first half of 2025, but two transactions above $1bn in the third quarter mean that Q3 alone could end up adding $9bn to that number, according to Legal & General Retirement America.
The new longevity insurance and reinsurance arrangements cover pensioner liabilities in the Lloyds Bank Pension Scheme No.1 (£3.1bn), Lloyds Bank Pension Scheme No.2 (£0.7bn) and HBOS Final Salary Pension Scheme (£1bn).
Two new reports from insurance asset manager Conning – one of them produced in conjunction with life settlement industry group the European Life Settlement Association (ELSA), publisher of Longevity and Mortality Investor – paint an optimistic picture of the state of the life settlement market.
Reasons abound as to why the inclusion of illiquid assets in the portfolios of defined benefit pension schemes can be a hindrance to the process of completing a bulk purchase annuity buy-in or buy-out in the UK but insurer appetite to capitalise on the booming pension risk transfer market means that any resistance is not as pronounced as it was previously.
As with previous years, the US life insurance industry had a solid 2024 from a balance sheet perspective and continues to be healthy from a risk perspective.
Longevity and Mortality Investor’s Editor’s Letter for the December 2025 issue.