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February 2020

Longevity and risk transfer: a booming market

Last year marked a record year for the UK’s pension risk transfer (PRT) market, with an estimated £50bn (€59bn) worth of transactions completed, including buy-ins, buyouts, and longevity swaps. The total was almost double that of the previous year, according to Mercer, which compiled the figures, and there were several innovative approaches to buy-ins and buyouts as demand from pension funds and competition among insurers reached new highs. Communications company Telent conducted the biggest single deal of the...

January 2020

Ford to take $2.2 billion fourth-quarter loss related to pensions

Ford Motor Co. said late Wednesday it expects to take a fourth-quarter pretax charge of $2.2 billion related to pension obligations that will cut down on its net income. After taxes, the $2.2 billion loss is expected to slash Ford’s net income by about $1.7 billion, Ford F, -1.42% said in a filing. As it is a special item, the loss will not affect adjusted profit or adjusted per-share profit, the car maker said. It also did not...

Head of Canada Pension Fund Warns on Rush to Iliquid Assets

The biggest global funds should all be monitoring their investments in illiquid assets, according to the head of Canada’s largest pension fund. “I do ring the alarm bell on not to be too invested in illiquid assets,” Mark Machin, chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are very comfortable with our risk models and what we would do in various lurches...

Inside a Pension Fund’s Search for a Risk Management System

The LACERA investment team recommended MSCI’s risk analytics over competitors including BlackRock’s Aladdin system and FactSet. After a lengthy search, the investment team at the Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association has settled on a new risk analytics provider. The investment team has recommended that its board hire MSCI Analytics to provide total fund analytics for the $59.6 billion pension fund, according to the agenda from a LACERA investment board meeting held on Wednesday. MSCI beat out rivals including FactSet and...

Athene Closes $6 Billion in Pension Risk Transfer Transactions During 2019

Athene Holding Ltd. ("Athene") (NYSE: ATH), a leading retirement services company, announced it has reached approximately $6.0 billion in total pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions for 2019, which includes approximately $800 million from a recently completed funded reinsurance transaction with a leading U.K. insurance company. Under the terms of Athene’s inaugural transaction in the U.K. market, which closed December 19, 2019, the Company will reinsure a block of pension benefit liabilities through its wholly owned subsidiary Athene Life Re...

December 2019

UK Pension Risk Transfer Market to Quadruple in Decade

The UK’s bulk annuity market is forecast to quadruple over the next decade, driven mainly by lower pricing as more pension plans mature and additional reinsurers enter the UK market, according to consulting firm Mercer. By the end of 2019, Mercer said it expects the bulk annuity market in Great Britain to exceed £40 billion ($52.6 billion), with the total UK risk transfer market, including longevity swaps, forecast to reach £50 billion. Mercer said it has also...

Danish Pension Assets Swell to $680 Billion as Funds Add Risk

Denmark’s pension industry has grown to more than double the country’s gross domestic product after adding about $100 billion this year alone. “The first nine months of 2019 saw considerable growth in the companies’ balance sheets as a result of substantial returns on pension wealth,” the central bank said on Tuesday. That followed a substantial increase in holdings of asset classes outside the traditional bond and stock allocations. Pension funds have been shifting their allocation to alternative assets as...

Changing Risks in Retirement

It is important to understand from the very outset how changing risks are primarily what separate retirement income planning from traditional wealth management. Retirees have less capacity for risk, as they become more vulnerable to a reduced standard of living when risks manifest. Those entering retirement are crossing the threshold into an entirely foreign way of living. Reduced earnings capacity Retirees face reduced flexibility to earn income in the labor markets as a way to cushion their...

The conflict of interest around pension transfers

By James Jones-Tinsley Things have certainly changed. Access to defined benefit schemes has dropped significantly, while the proliferation and membership of defined contribution schemes has soared. In April 2015, the pension freedoms liberated funds by offering individuals easier access to their savings from age 55 onwards. Rather than having to purchase an annuity, an individual could simply withdraw their entire pension fund in one go. But given that the pension freedoms only applied to define contribution schemes, this unfettered access...

UK. Life expectancy advice risks turning savers into spenders

Online calculators that tell people their life expectancy may be having the perverse effect of discouraging them from choosing a guaranteed income in retirement, according to academic research. The study of 2,000 people found that they were less likely to buy an annuity — a guaranteed income for life — after using official life expectancy calculators such as that on the government’s Pension Wise service. People appeared to be making decisions that conventional economics could not explain when confronted...