Milliman Pension Buyout Index May 2025
By Jake Pringle & Ryan Cook
Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 140 bps from 102.5% to 101.1% during April
As the pension risk transfer market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important for plan sponsors to monitor the annuity buyout market when considering a plan termination or de-risking strategy. Figure 1 illustrates retiree buyout costs with two different metrics: The red line represents only the most competitive insurers’ rates from each month, while the blue line represents a straight average of all insurers’ rates in this study.
These metrics demonstrate two important concepts. First, the competitive bidding process is estimated to save plan sponsors on average around 3.0% as of April 30. Second, retirees can be annuitized for an estimated 101.1% of accounting liabilities (accumulated benefit obligation).
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