Author: Aaron Woolner

In May last year The Netherlands Future of Pensions Act was approved by lawmakers and came into force on 1st July 2023. The new law heralds a step-change in the Dutch pension industry and a wholesale switch away from a defined benefit-based system.  Subject to a four-year transition period, all pension providers in the Netherlands need to switch from defined benefit (DB) model to a defined contribution (DC) one by 1st January 2027.  But November elections in the country brought in a new coalition government made-up of four parties, three of which campaigned on manifestos containing pledges to make major…

UK pension risk transfer (PRT) firm Just Group has offloaded $500m of longevity and asset risk to Bermuda-based reinsurer Warwick Re as part of a quota share deal. It is the third funded reinsurance deal by Just Group since 2019 and the inaugural transaction for Warwick Re, which received its first issuer rating (BBB – Fitch) in December 2023. In a press release announcing the move, Warwick Re CEO and founder Chris McGlashan said the firm was also looking to strike deals in Europe and the US as well as the UK. Just Group has been an active player in…

Centrus Energy has bought a $187m group annuity contract from an unnamed insurer that will result in the obligations of roughly 1,400 scheme beneficiaries being transferred. The deal was struck on 12 October last year and the scheme members’ benefits were transferred across to the insurer on 1 December, according to the nuclear energy services firm’s latest 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the 9 February filing, the annuity purchase was funded with pension plan assets worth $171.4m. As a result of the transaction Centrus Energy recorded income of $28.6m in the fourth quarter of…

Prudential Financial has closed a pension risk transfer (PRT) deal with Shell USA, which sees $4.9bn worth of pension obligations transfer to the insurer. The deal covers roughly 21,500 of the oil and gas firm’s US pensioners and Prudential subsidiary The Prudential Insurance Company of America will start administering payments on 15 May 2024. In a press release announcing the move, Prudential said following the signing of the deal the firm had now completed seven of the ten largest PRT deals struck in the US. Deals by Prudential include the 2022 $16bn PRT with IBM and the firm has been…

US defence shipbuilding firm Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has offloaded $411m of pension liabilities to an unknown insurer via a group annuity contract. The largest military shipbuilder in the US announced the move via a statutory 10k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the start of February. Details on the filing said that HII had transferred the payment of roughly 10,000 retirees and their beneficiaries via the deal. The deal was agreed on 3 November 2023. This the latest pension derisking by HII. In November 2022 the firm bought a number of group annuity contracts which saw about…

Just Group has completed a £400m ($502m) full scheme buy-in with the pension scheme of an unnamed UK tech firm covering all scheme members. The transaction will see about 2,500 pensioners and dependents and 1,500 deferred members of the scheme move to Just Group. According to a press release by Just Group, the buy-in was the culmination of a ten-year de-risking plan by the scheme’s sponsor. An unspecified premium was paid to secure the transfer. Mercer acted as lead risk transfer adviser as well as insurer financial strength adviser, scheme actuary and investment adviser. The trustees’ legal adviser was Eversheds…

The Rexam Pension Plan has agreed a £1.4bn ($1.8bn) buy-in deal with Rothesay which covers the benefits of over 14,000 scheme members. The pension fund’s sponsor is packaging firm Ball Corporation and the single premium insurance policy it has bought covers the residual risks for 9,790 pensioners and 4,330 deferred members. Rothesay said that Ball did not pay an additional contribution to offload the scheme in a deal which was agreed in August 2023. Aon was lead broker on the transactions. WTW provided actuarial advice and project management to the pension fund. Eversheds Sutherland provided legal advice to Rothesay and…

The UK subsidiary of US tech firm Unisys has signed a £300m ($380m) bulk purchase annuity (BPA) with Standard Life. The transaction was signed in November and sees Standard Life take on the benefits of 2,400 scheme members from the iPSL Section of the Unisys Payment Services Limited Pension Scheme and the Unisys Public Sector Pension Scheme. Mercer was lead transaction adviser to the pension schemes with Gowling WLG providing legal advice. This is the latest de-risking move by the tech firm which in November offloaded $250m of US pension liabilities to F&G Annuities & Life. Unisys has previously bought…

Aviva has completed a £140m ($170m) bulk purchase annuity (BPA) deal with the trustee of the Guilbert UK Retirement Benefits Plan which is sponsored by the UK arm of stationery firm Office Depot. Aviva provided a full scheme buy-in for Office Depot UK Pension Sponsor Limited, which sees the insurer take on the investment and longevity risk for 1,500 members. The tender process was led by PwC which also provided transaction advice to both the trustee and the sponsoring company. Travers Smith gave legal advice and Mercer provided administration, scheme actuary, and investment advice to the trustee. This is Aviva’s…

A Bermuda-based subsidiary of Resolution Life has completed a £2bn ($2.5bn) reinsurance treaty with a UK life firm covering a tranche of individual in-payment annuity liabilities. Resolution Life said its Bermudian reinsurance platform Resolution Re completed the transaction with an unnamed major UK-regulated insurer at the end of 2023. Resolution will reinsure the market and longevity risks of about 90,000 policyholders following the deal. Law firm CMS advised Resolution. This is Resolution’s second funded reinsurance transaction in the UK since the firm entered the market last year with a pensions risk transfer (PRT) deal. In October 2023, Resolution Life announced…