Author: Greg Winterton

UBS Group has signed an agreement to sell its 100% holding in Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies Ltd to the CSILS management team led by Niklaus Hilti.  Upon closing, CSILS will operate independently from UBS under a new name and will continue to manage the funds and single investor fund mandates.  “We are incredibly excited about this strategic transaction for us which marks another significant milestone in the journey of the CSILS team. It reinforces our commitment to our clients and marks a pivotal moment that allows us to build on our strong foundation and focus on our mission and…

EY has appointed Swapnil Katkar as a new Partner in the firm’s London office to lead bulk purchase annuity and capital markets solutions within EY’s pensions consulting business.  Katkar will lead a team of 15 consultants across the UK to grow EY’s advisory and transaction solutions for pension funds and sponsors, with a focus on buy-ins and buy-outs, captive insurance, reinsurance, and illiquid asset transactions. As part of his role, he joins EY’s UK Pensions Leadership Team.   Katkar has joined EY from PwC UK, where he led pension risk transfer and advised schemes ranging from small to multi-billion pound in…

Encouraging more Australians to access equity in their homes combined with changes to stamp duty and the Age Pension could give asset-rich, income-poor retirees a valuable income boost and help free up more housing for young families, a new paper published by the Institute of Actuaries of Australia suggests.  The paper, More Than Just a Roof: Changing the Narrative on the Role of the Home, calls for a rethink on how the home is traditionally viewed, changing from a ‘nest egg’ to a key financial asset retirees can use as an income stream in retirement.  More than three million Australians…

UK industry group the Equity Release Council has published its quarterly update for Q2 2024. Total lending in the market was up +15% on the first quarter, with a +12% rise in new customers observed as well.  That double-digit rise in the number of customers taking out new products made Q2 2024 the busiest quarter for almost a year for the equity release market in terms of total customers served and total lending activity.  In addition, existing drawdown customers, who are allocated a cash reserve when they first take equity release, continued to make use of this facility.  A +3%…

Consulting and actuarial firm Milliman’s latest Milliman Pension Buyout Index shows that during June, the estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process decreased from 100.7% of a plan’s accounting liabilities (accumulated benefit obligation, or ABO) to 100.3% of those liabilities.  That means the estimated retiree PRT cost is now 100.3% of a plan’s ABO. During the same time period, the average annuity purchase cost across all insurers in our index rose slightly, from 103.2% to 103.3%. The competitive bidding process is estimated to save plan sponsors about 3.0% of PRT costs as…

Abacus Life is acquiring Carlisle Management Company SCA, a Luxembourg-based investment manager in the life settlement space, for approximately $200m. Carlisle has approximately $2 bn in assets under management and is licensed as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager under the oversight of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in Luxembourg. “We are excited to be joining the industry-leading team at Abacus. The transaction will provide a myriad of potential opportunities and synergies that will be available to our funds, shareholders, and our employees,” said Carlisle Management’s Chief Executive Officer Jose Garcia. “Our company cultures are a perfect fit, and…

Independent bulk annuity and consolidator advisory business K3 Advisory today said there are potentially hundreds of small pension schemes unaware they are within ‘cheque-writing distance’ of being able to afford to buyout their scheme liabilities and urged trustees to take action.   According to data from the Pension Protection Fund’s 2023 Purple Book, 26% of schemes with fewer than 99 members are estimated to be between 75% and 100% funded on a buyout basis (487 schemes).     “These figures are unlike anything we have seen before in terms of funding positions for small pension schemes – and it provides an opportunity that…

Independent bulk annuity and consolidator advisory business K3 Advisory today said there are potentially hundreds of small pension schemes unaware they are within ‘cheque-writing distance’ of being able to afford to buyout their scheme liabilities and urged trustees to take action.   According to data from the Pension Protection Fund’s 2023 Purple Book, 26% of schemes with fewer than 99 members are estimated to be between 75% and 100% funded on a buyout basis (487 schemes).     “These figures are unlike anything we have seen before in terms of funding positions for small pension schemes – and it provides an opportunity that…

It is now a year since UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) brought in its new Consumer Duty (Duty), a regulation requiring all financial services firms to ‘act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers’ for all new product offerings. This month, the FCA closes the loop with the implementation of the duty for closed product offerings.  One of the markets that is impacted by the Duty is the country’s equity release market (ERM). Participants ranging from independent financial advisors right through to the funders themselves (life insurers and pension funds, in the main) have had to get with…

Life settlement asset managers pay significant sums of money to keep a life insurance policy in force until the insured dies. These sums can, and very often do, stretch to millions of dollars from when they assume ownership of a policy to when it matures.  But what happens if a policy they own is declared void ab initio because of a lack of insurable interest?  Under Delaware law in the US, when the present owner acquires an insurance policy, they typically also acquire all right, title, and interest in the policy – including the right to recovery of prior premiums…