September 2024
12Sep

IBM completes $6 billion pension buyout with Prudential, its second in 2 years

International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y., purchased a group annuity contract from Prudential Insurance Co. of America to transfer $6 billion in defined benefit plan liabilities. The purchase of the contract, which closed Sept. 11, transfers the benefit-paying responsibility for about 32,000 retirees and beneficiaries covered by the IBM Personal Pension Plan, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC. According to the filing, the transferred participants represent “certain pension benefits that began to be paid prior to 2016.” Prudential will take on the...

September 12, 2024
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06Sep

UK and US pension risk transfer market to exceed £250bn in next three years

Legal & General has today released the latest edition of its Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) Monitor, which analyses industry trends and market outlooks in the UK and US. Findings from the report show: The UK PRT market has completed an estimated £20bn of buy-ins and buyouts in the year to date The US market experienced a record breaking first half, estimated at $26bn Both markets are on track for one of their largest years ever, with a significant increase in the number...

September 6, 2024
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August 2024
29Aug

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...

August 29, 2024
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21Aug

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...

August 21, 2024
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July 2024
03Jul

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...

July 3, 2024
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June 2024
19Jun

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...

June 19, 2024
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14Jun

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,...

June 14, 2024
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11Jun

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...

June 11, 2024
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May 2024
30May

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...

May 30, 2024
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April 2024
02Apr

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...

April 2, 2024
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