June 2024

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...

May 2024

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...

April 2024

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...

March 2024

U.S. Pension Risk Transfer. 2023 Reflections and Looking Ahead

By AON The U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market saw another record-breaking year in 2023. After setting record highs for total premium in 2021 and 2022, the market set a new high-water mark for the total number of transactions in 2023 with 773 deals closing during the calendar year. These transactions resulted in $45 billion of premium transferred. Since 2012, $318 billion of pension obligations have transferred from plan sponsors to insurance companies. On the other side of the equation, insurer...