Legal & General Retirement America (LGRA), a leading provider of pension risk solutions in the US, today released its third quarter Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) Monitor.

The Monitor, which examines PRT transaction volume in the United States, estimates more than $16 billion in sales occurred over the past three months. Fueled by strong equity returns and rising interest rates, third quarter transaction volume was nearly twice the combined $8.8 billion recorded during the first two quarters of 2021.

The third quarter was also reported to be the second highest single quarter to date, behind only the fourth quarter in 2012 when General Motors completed a transaction of $26 billion. With Q4 transactions projected to be between $10-15 billion, total annual market volume could be between $35-40 billion, potentially surpassing its previous high set in 2012 at $36 billion.

In contrast to the first half of 2021, lift-outs outpaced terminations in the third quarter. Due mostly to two jumbo transactions (deals over $1 billion) of $5 billion each, lift-outs consisted of nearly 90% of deals that closed by premium.

“The economy is slowly but surely recovering from the pandemic and as a result deal volumes and deal sizes should follow suit,” said George Palms, LGRA President. “We’ve seen five jumbo deals of more than $1 billion this year alone, reflecting the fact that plan sponsors are becoming more comfortable with PRT as a tool to manage their pension risk.”

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