Plan sponsors are increasingly turning to options like annuity buyouts to eliminate their pension obligations.

More U.S. companies are considering transferring away their pension liabilities, according to a new survey by MetLife.

Roughly two-thirds of the 102 plan sponsors polled by the insurance company last year stated that they were interested in conducting an annuity buyout, up from 46 percent in 2015. Interest in pension buyouts among American companies has increased as Fortune 500 companies like FedEx and Raytheon have announced annuity deals and federal insurance rates for underfunded pensions have gone up.

“The poll findings indicate a trend in increased pension risk transfer activity as we anticipate plan sponsors will want to proactively deal with the cost and volatility of their plans,” Wayne Daniel, senior vice president and head of U.S. pensions at MetLife, said in a statement.

Three-quarters of the surveyed plan sponsors said they intended to completely divest their defined benefit pension liabilities at some point in the future, with some 35 percent planning to eliminate their liabilities within the next five years.

Half intended to combine a buyout with lump sum payouts to plan participants, while 17 percent were targeting a buyout only. Just over a quarter said they were only planning to offer lump sums, down from 34 percent in 2017.

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