August 2024

US. Prudential to Complete Industry’s 1st Multiemployer Pension Risk Transfer

In what is thought to be an industry first, Sound Retirement Trust, a multiemployer pension plan based in Seattle, has selected the Prudential Insurance Co. of America to complete a pension risk transfer—the first PRT to involve a multiemployer plan. The $221 million transaction will provide pension benefits for approximately 8,700 retirees and beneficiaries. Sound Retirement Trust is a joint labor-management board of trustees that provides retirement benefits to grocery workers of contributing employers across Washington. Multiemployer pension plans are retirement programs...

Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer costs climb from 100.3% to 102.5% in July

Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer costs climb from 100.3% to 102.5% in July Competitive bidding process saves about 2.4% of buyout costs as of July 31 Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). As the pension risk transfer (PRT) market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to monitor the annuity market for plan sponsors that are considering transferring retiree pension obligations to an insurer. During...

July 2024

General Electric sued over pension risk transfers to Athene

The employees accused Athene of violating ERISA and of “investing in lower-quality, higher-risk assets without the traditional mix of quality assets to support future benefit obligations,” in the case of Bueno et al. vs. General Electric Co. et al. filed June 28 in a U.S. District Court in Syracuse, N.Y. The lawsuit seeks class-action status, saying approximately 70,000 people could be affected by the pension risk transfer that was announced in December 2020. Athene is not a defendant, and neither is...

June 2024

US. Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer costs inches down in May, from 100.9% to 100.7%

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). As the pension risk transfer (PRT) market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to monitor the annuity market for plan sponsors that are considering transferring retiree pension obligations to an insurer. During May, the estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process decreased slightly, from 100.9% of a plan’s accounting...

Legal & General resets strategy, focuses on pension risk transfer, private markets

Legal & General Group will bring together its investment management business and alternatives platform to create a single asset management division, aiming to almost double its private markets platform assets, and will "seize the significant" pension risk transfer opportunity under a new strategy. L&G announced a refreshed strategy and financial targets June 12, following “a rigorous review of the business,” a statement said. As part of the move, it will bring Legal & General Investment Management The move will create a single,...

AT&T Seeks Dismissal From Two Lawsuits Targeting PRT Deal with Athene

AT&T Inc. filed a motion to dismiss two lawsuits against the company Wednesday that accused both AT&T and its independent fiduciary, State Street Global Advisors Trust Co., of selecting a “risky” third-party insurance company—Athene Annuity and Life Company—to conduct its $8.05 billion pension risk transfer in May 2023. The retirees who filed the two lawsuits against AT&T claimed that selecting Athene was not a safe annuity choice for ERISA fiduciaries. But the company’s filing argued that AT&T did not make...

May 2024

Entergy to Transfer $1.2B in Pension Liabilities

In a busy year for pension risk transfer transactions, energy provider Entergy will transfer $1.157 billion in pension liabilities to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Entergy announced in an 8-K SEC filing on May 24. Entergy, which provides electricity to roughly three million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, entered the agreement with MetLife on May 23, which will cover 3,447 retirees and other beneficiates who received benefit payments on or before March 1, 2024. Entergy’s retirees and beneficiaries will continue to receive...

April 2024

US. Unisys Announces $200M Pension Risk Transfer

IT technology company Unisys Corp. announced Monday it has closed an agreement with F&G Annuities & Life Inc. to purchase group annuity contracts. The agreement, which closed on March 28, will see Unisys transfer $200 million in pension liabilities from its U.S. defined benefit plan to the insurer. F&G will assume responsibility for paying out pension benefits to 3,800 Unisys retirees and beneficiaries. Notably, this is the sixth Unisys pension risk transfer transaction since January 2021, and it has contracted...

March 2024

U.S. Pension Risk Transfer. 2023 Reflections and Looking Ahead

By AON The U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market saw another record-breaking year in 2023. After setting record highs for total premium in 2021 and 2022, the market set a new high-water mark for the total number of transactions in 2023 with 773 deals closing during the calendar year. These transactions resulted in $45 billion of premium transferred. Since 2012, $318 billion of pension obligations have transferred from plan sponsors to insurance companies. On the other side of the equation, insurer...