Defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors took an unexpected hit when the market crashed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many found past strategies they used in bear markets needed to be tweaked for the unprecedented volatility that followed.Read More
Many employers with defined benefit pension plans would love to put responsibility for the plans in the hands of a life insurer, by buying a large group annuity contract. Predictions about how the current COVID-19, stock price and interest rate turmoil will affect the market for pension risk transfer annuities are.... highly diverse.Read More
Defying forecasts of another grim month due to global market volatility, the funded status of the 100 largest US corporate pension funds surprisingly increased $93 billion in March despite deteriorating economic conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Just a month after hitting its lowest level in more than three years the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index...Read More
At least some big life insurers are eager to sell the big group annuities used in the pension risk transfer business. Legal & General Group PLC and Global Atlantic Financial Group Ltd. have both put out signals that they're still hungry for pension risk transfer deals. Legal & General reported last week that it completed...Read More
The CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act signed into law March 27 not only includes provisions related to defined contribution (DC) plans, but it also provides relief for defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors.Read More
The US single-premium pension buyout market set a record with 501 contracts sold in 2019, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, and sales are expected to increase again this year as the markets become increasingly volatile as a result of the coronavirus.Read More
Supremex Inc., a leading North American manufacturer and marketer of envelopes and a growing provider of paper-based packaging solutions, today announced the purchase of a $46 million CAD group annuity buy-in with RBC Life Insurance Company.Read More
Plan sponsors will need to consider whether in 2020, as in 2019, stock market returns will be great enough to offset rising liabilities from interest rate decreases.Read More
Amid market volatility and a desire to limit the costs and downside risks associated with their pension plans, sponsors are reconsidering their approaches and talking with insurers about options they may not have previously considered.Read More
