October 2025

MetLife Finds Most Companies Intend to Divest Pension Liabilities Within 5 Years

September marked the sixth consecutive month of improvement for corporate pension funding, according to Zorast Wadia, a principal and actuary at Milliman. The funded status of the largest 100 corporate defined benefit plans reached 106.5%, its highest level since October 2007—just before the global financial crisis. 2025 has been a “tailwind of a year for pension finances,” says Brian Donohue, a partner in October Three Consulting. There is still time left in the year’s fourth quarter, and he says companies...

June 2021

UK. TPR secures £730m insolvency protection for Sanofi Pension Scheme

Sanofi’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme has additional insolvency protection of up to £730m for 20 years, following intervention from The Pensions Regulator (TPR). The regulator worked with the global healthcare company to secure the increased financial support for the scheme, which also includes deficit repair contributions and an upfront payment of £37m, after warning that it would take enforcement action if necessary. TPR added that the scheme, which has 16,500 members, now also benefits from a legally binding agreement which...

GE to freeze U.K. pension plans

General Electric Co said on Thursday it would freeze pension benefits for about 2,700 employees in the United Kingdom from January and take a related charge. GE’s pension benefit obligation in the U.K. was about $14 billion at the end of 2020. The company’s pension plan has been closed to new entrants in the UK since September 2011. “The affected employees will automatically be enrolled into GE’s existing defined contribution scheme,” the company said. GE, which makes power plants and aircraft engines,...