Author: Greg Winterton

Industry group the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) has published the 2023 edition of its Market Data Collection survey. The headline is that life settlement received over $842m from licensed LISA member providers for the sale of their unwanted life insurance policies, up from $790m in 2022. Additionally, consumers received $707m more from the life settlement option vs. lapsing or surrendering their life insurance coverage, the largest sum recorded since LISA began collecting market data. LISA provider members concluded 3,218 life settlement transactions in 2023, purchasing a total face value of $4.67bn. “The data that we collected in our Market…

AXA and Athora have mutually agreed to terminate a sale agreement related to the purchase of a closed life and pensions portfolio from AXA Germany. AXA will instead retain this portfolio, the sale of which was announced in July 2022. Separately, AXA subsidiary AXA Life Europe has entered into a reinsurance agreement with New Reinsurance Company, a subsidiary of Munich Re, that covers approximately EUR 3bn of Variable Annuity reserves. This transaction will result in a reduction in underlying earnings of ca. EUR 20m per annum from 2024 onwards which AXA intends to offset with a EUR 0.2bn share buyback…

Life settlement trade group the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) proposed amendments to the National Council of Insurance Legislators’ (NCOIL) life settlement model act at NCOIL’s Spring National Meeting on 12 April. Coventry First co-founder and Executive Chairman Alan Buerger, a former LISA Chair, was LISA’s witness before Chair, Rep. Carl Anderson (S.C.), Vice Chair, Sen. Vickie Sawyer (N.C.), and the members of NCOIL’s Life Insurance & Planning Committee. Buerger presented LISA’s proposed amendments, which focused on two areas identified by LISA members as essential to serving consumers: electronic commerce and consumers’ access to their licensed producers’ expertise. “Because of…

Investment manager Hudson Structured Capital Management has closed HS Mohawk Fund I LP,  a life-insurance focused continuation fund. The fund closed with $175mn of commitments, led by StepStone Group. In connection with the closing, HSCM has also named Gokul Sudarsana its Chief Investment Officer for Life Insurance, in addition to his role as Chief Actuary. “We are delighted to announce the successful closing of the fund and continue to be a trusted capital partner to our portfolio companies and drive value creation for our investors,” said Sudarsana. “This transaction marks an exciting milestone in our growing life insurance franchise, and…

UK Regulators analyse Funded Reinsurance risks in Pension Risk Transfers; PRA raises portfolio recapture concerns.

UK Regulators analyse Funded Reinsurance risks in Pension Risk Transfers; PRA raises portfolio recapture concerns.

It’s well documented that the pension risk transfer (PRT) market in the UK has a human capital problem, in the sense that there aren’t enough people to fill the vacancies in the space. Greg Winterton spoke to TC Jefferson, Managing Partner at executive search firm The Plenum Group, to learn more about the going on in the space.  GW: TC, there is plenty of coverage in the trade media about this apparent ‘challenge’ that firms in the pension risk transfer market face when it comes to hiring. Just how ‘real’ is this issue?  TCJ: Thanks Greg. I can assure you…

UK Regulators analyse Funded Reinsurance risks in Pension Risk Transfers; PRA raises portfolio recapture concerns.

Last orders have been called for the UK pension fund of diamond specialist De Beers with a £870m ($1.1bn) full buy-in deal that will see all current pensioners and deferred members transferred to Pensions Insurance Corporation (PIC). In a 2 April news release, PIC said that 1464 current pensioners and 473 deferred members of the scheme, which is sponsored by De Beers UK, would transfer across from the pension fund. Hymans Robertson and Barnett Waddingham provided the De Beers trustees with actuarial advice on the transaction. PIC was given legal advice by CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang (CCMNO) and the De…

Red hot pension risk transfer market creating competition for talent