Author: Greg Winterton

Activity in the smaller scheme corner of the UK’s pension risk transfer market has held up in the past 18 months, despite initial concerns of crowding out. Greg Winterton spoke to Adam Davis, Managing Director at K3 Advisory, to get his thoughts on the drivers of activity in this part of the country’s booming bulk purchase annuity space.  GW: Adam, first off, what is the main reason – or reasons – that activity in the smaller scheme space has held up well recently?  AD: It is important to remember that, in terms of large schemes, there are not that many…

The European Life Settlement Association (ELSA), the European industry group promoting and supporting the life settlement industry, has today published its latest Fact Sheet, The Life Settlement Licence Matrix. The Life Settlement Licence Matrix is designed to provide institutional, end investors with an overview of the current landscape of licensed life settlement providers; the number of them, where they are licensed to operate, and notable changes in the data from the previous year. The Fact Sheet features an updated edition of the Licensed Provider Matrix (LPM), ELSA’s proprietary tool that provides a snapshot of which providers are licensed to operate…

The Rawle Gammon & Baker Ltd Pension & Assurance Scheme (sponsored by FTI Property Ltd, a company in the commercial property sector) has completed a £23m full buy-in transaction with Just Group.  The transaction, which was finalised in June 2024, secures the benefits of 113 deferred members and 154 pensioners. The project was supported by consulting firm K3 Advisory’s strategic partner In-Vest & Retire which is the trustees’ investment advisor, and WPS Trustee governance services.  “We are very pleased to have secured the benefits for these scheme members and to have met the needs of the trustees and the schemes’…

British mutual Royal London published its interim 2024 results on 2nd August, which said that operating profit before tax increased by 13% to £144m (H1 2023: £127m), life and pensions new business sales were up 4% to £5,048m (H1 2023: £4,865m) and assets under management increased to £169bn (31st December 2023: £162bn).  But for those in the UK’s bulk purchase annuity market, something else was more interesting than the actual results.  “We continued to build our bulk annuity proposition in advance of our planned market entry later this year, focusing on leveraging our capabilities to deliver an attractive solution for…

Asset manager Obra Capital has hired Vlad Sorokulov as Managing Director, Portfolio Management and Pricing.   At Obra, Sorokulov will be responsible for supporting the investment team across the firm’s portfolio of both life settlements and life insurance. Sorokulov will be based in New York and report to Blair Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer of Obra Capital.  “We’re excited to welcome Vlad to our experienced investment team,” said Wallace.  “Vlad brings a depth of skills and knowledge of life insurance products and experience in implementing sophisticated pricing strategies and financial models that will be utilised to support our investments across…

Non-bank mortgage servicer and originator Onity Group, previously Ocwen Financial Corporation until a June re-brand, has entered into a letter of intent with Waterfall Asset Management to acquire reverse mortgage assets of Mortgage Assets Management, LLC, a subsidiary of investment funds managed by Waterfall.  “We are pleased to announce the proposed transaction with Waterfall,” said Onity Chair, President and CEO Glen Messina, in a press release outlining the group’s Q2 2024 results.  “We expect this transaction to be accretive to earnings and cash flows immediately upon closing, while strengthening our position in reverse servicing as a hedge to forward MSRs,…

SCA UK Pension Plan, sponsored by Essity Holding UK Limited, has completed a buy-in bulk purchase annuity transaction with Legal & General.  The deal, worth £1.1bn, secures the benefits of 5,900 retirees and 3,600 deferred members.  “I’m delighted that the trustees, Essity, Legal & General and our advisers have been able to work together to complete this transaction. It is good news for our members and increases the level of security that their pension benefits will be paid in full. The outcome was only possible in the time frame as a result of the great team effort between everyone involved,”…

Coventry is injecting an additional $300m into program that enables policyowners to sell their Universal Life insurance policy in as little as one week.

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority has published its funded reinsurance policy statement, and for life insurers in the UK looking to offload some of their bulk purchase annuity longevity risk to offshore reinsurers, the message is that the regulator expects them to understand fully the risks inherent to these transactions.  “It is essential that firms who have entered into FundedRe transactions are able to demonstrate, with a high degree of confidence, that they can withstand, in a viable form, either a single recapture event or multiple recapture events involving highly correlated reinsurance counterparties,” says Gareth Truran, Executive Director,…

British regulator The Pensions Regulator’s new DB funding code has been laid before the country’s lawmakers.  The new DB funding code sets out to trustees, sponsoring employers and advisers TPR’s guidance and expectations on how to comply with the funding and investment strategy requirements. Once in force, it will replace the existing DB funding code, introduced in 2014, for valuations with effective dates on or after 22 September 2024.  The Pensions Regulator says the new DB funding code encourages good long-term planning and risk management behaviours; includes guidance on how trustees can set funding plans in line with the support…