Institutional Insights

The UK and US Pension Risk Transfer markets experienced an extremely busy 2022 with burgeoning demand signifying an exciting year ahead. Aysha Patel, New Business Origination Lead, Legal & General Retirement Institutional and Alex Gagnon, Distribution Manager, Legal & General Retirement America, discuss market dynamics and the trends we're seeing in 2023.

At Legal & General, looking after our customers is our number one priority and we understand that they all have different needs. In this episode, Pensions Administrator, Michala Crouch talks to our Vulnerable Customer Champions about the work we do in ensuring our teams can recognise those who require additional support. They'll also highlight what services we provide to vulnerable customers, putting them at the heart of everything we do.

In this episode Michala Crouch, Pensions Administrator, talks to George Hutchinson, Customer Service Manager and Lauren Alexander, Team Manager at Legal & General Retirement Institutional about our partnership with the Customer Contact Association (CCA). They also provide an insight into how the Client Services team go above and beyond to deliver a great service to both trustees and members.

We all know that markets move. However, in the past few years we've lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history. Yet market volatility can also create opportunities for pension schemes on their de-risking journeys – during this period we have seen some of the most of attractive bulk annuity pricing in the history of the UK market. The market factors that most impact buyout affordability have continued to move positively over the course of this year, namely interest rates and credit spreads. In this episode, Sabeen Iftikhar, Director in our Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business, talks to Aysha Patel, New Business Origination Lead, PRT and Mat Webb, Head of insurance Solutions & Strategy at Legal & General Investment Management, about how pension schemes can take advantage of market volatility and achieve favourable pricing opportunities.

Bea Male, Client Solutions Director talks to Dave Matthews, Head of PRT Quote Production and Roshni Sakaria, Actuarial Manager, about our insurer quote processes, while exploring the key inputs and factors that influence bulk annuity pricing. The episode also discusses how market volatility can impact pricing, as well as highlighting how insurers can help pension schemes take advantage of favourable pricing opportunities using different solutions, such as ‘price locks'.

This episode welcomes Wes Erlam, Head of Urban Regeneration, Ben Rodgers, Head of Regeneration and Aaron McClure, Investment Manager where they demystify how our unique business model enables us to deliver our purpose of inclusive capitalism.  By using examples of our regeneration projects in Manchester, Cardiff and Oxford, where we've created jobs, homes and services for local people, we can highlight how businesses can benefit the wider economy, while generating the right level of returns for customers.

Industry experts expect 2022 to be another busy year for the Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) market. In this episode, we welcome back John Towner, Head of UK New Business, LGRI and Sheena McEwen, Head of Distribution, LGRA, where they reflect on trends presented in the UK and US markets throughout 2021 and what we can expect to see in 2022.

We often hear the term “preparation is key” when pension schemes start their de-risking journey, but what does this actually mean? In this episode, we're joined by Matt Nelmes, New Business Manager in LGRI, who outlines what schemes need to consider before coming to market.

A year on, we welcome back Darryl Brundle, Head of Longevity and Ashley Kanter, Longevity Research and Innovation Specialist in LGRI's Longevity team, who have been exploring links between climate change and mortality rates. In this episode, Darryl and Ashley discuss their findings and explain why this information is important to insurers.

Legal & General Retirement Institutional is the UK's market-leading bulk annuity provider, with over 30 years' experience, it has insured over 3,500 pension schemes and currently looks after over half a million pension policyholders. It all started in 1986, when senior management created two new business units. One was Group Risk; the other was Bulk Purchase Annuities (BPA). In this episode, we're joined by Dave Poulton, Chief Customer Officer at LGRI and welcome back retired senior actuary Dennis Canham, who was given BPA to “see what he could make of it”, as they discuss how our PRT business has developed throughout the years to what it is today.

In part two of our two-part episode, Brian Izzard, Member Nominated Trustee for the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan and Dom Moret, Head of Origination & Execution, discuss our £2.4 billion PRT transaction in more detail, which enabled the Plan to exit the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment and covered over 20,000 pension members' benefits. They also outline the key elements that made the transaction such a success.

In 2018, we announced a £2.4 billion Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) transaction with the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan, which enabled the Plan to exit the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment. In this two-part episode, we welcome Dom Moret, Head of Origination & Execution at Legal & General Retirement Institutional who worked on the transaction and Brian Izzard, Member Nominated Trustee for the Plan, discussing Brian's journey of becoming a trustee and how he felt when he first heard that Nortel Networks was going into administration.

Julian Hobday, Origination & Execution Director, LGRI, Adolfo Aponte, Managing Director, Lincoln Pensions and Tom Lukic, Trustee, Dalriada, discuss what happens when a pension scheme's corporate sponsor is acquired by another company and the Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) agreement includes provisions regarding the pension scheme that makes the  sale conditional on the removal of future DB risk. The episode focuses on a recent transaction completed by Legal & General in November 2020, where Lincoln provided strategic advice to the seller.

Stefan Hentschel, Head of Treasury & Pension Asset Management, Evonik and John Towner, Head of New Business, LGRI discuss Legal & General's second global transaction, announced in January 2021. The episode highlights the process from Evonik's perspective, working together with L&G towards desired objectives and explores why it's beneficial for a multinational company to have the option of de-risking with the same insurer across countries.

We are pleased to have completed our first ever conversion of part of an Assured Payment Policy (APP) to a buy-in. In this episode, Sabeen Iftikhar, New Business Actuary and Frankie Borrell, Head of Client Solutions will explore APPs in more detail including their conversion mechanics, highlighting how innovative solutions such as APPs can help pension schemes on their de-risking journeys.

Paige Wilson, New Business Manager and Camilla Curtis, Solicitor for PRT, discuss the process of agreeing an umbrella contract with an insurer. The episode explores how umbrella contracts can help DB pension schemes to capture favourable market moves and take advantage of pricing opportunities.

Across the Legal & General Group, inclusive capitalism is a key principle that drives our corporate strategy and shapes our culture. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors and impact investing in the real economy are at the heart of our investment approach. Anisha Gangwani, Head of Investment Business Development, LGR, explores how Pension Risk Transfer can contribute to our ESG objectives and vision of inclusive capitalism.

Rachel Cutts, Orgination & Execution Director and Gavin Smith, UK Head of Pricing and Execution talk to us about what happens when a pension scheme's sponsor becomes insolvent and the process when securing a PPF+ transaction to secure pension members benefits.

Senior Transition Managers, Claire Shepherd and David Stevenson talk to us about what happens after a PRT transaction is agreed. They'll aim to demystify the transition period, by explaining how the process works and how important it is to work closely with the insurer.

Phil Anderson, Chief Operating Officer and Toby Wyithe, CSR Business Partner, at Legal & General Retirement Institutional discuss the benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business strategy. While reflecting on Legal & General's CSR initiatives in 2020, the episode outlines how CSR can help support customers, employees and the wider community. 

The global pandemic led to reinsurance shooting up the business news agenda last year. Mike Walsh, Chief Financial Officer and Tom Ault, Chief Business Development Officer of Legal & General's reinsurance business in Bermuda talk to us about their risk management strategy and the role of life reinsurance in helping businesses throughout the pandemic and beyond. The episode will also explore some of the challenges going forward in 2021 and what companies can do to prepare.

Dom Moret, Head of Origination & Execution, Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI) and Sheena McEwen, Head of Distribution, Legal & General Retirement America (LGRA) reflect on the Pension Risk Transfer market in 2020, discussing trends and LGRI's highlights of the year. The guests will reference our recently published PRT monitor as they look forward to what we can expect in 2021.  

In our last episode of the series, Natalie Bentley, Head of Operational Business Development at Legal & General Retirement Institutional, Will Devenney, Head of Infrastructure Debt for the UK and Europe and Charles-Henry Lecointe, Head of Infrastructure, North America from Legal & General Investment Management take a look at how insurers, such as ourselves, can use pension money to invest back into society to encourage economic recovery and help plug the UK's infrastructure gap.

Johnny Chow, Chief Investment Officer and Sumit Mehta, Head of Investment Solutions talk to us about how Covid-19 has impacted the investment landscape. Against this backdrop, Johnny and Sumit discuss LGRI's approach to investing and risk management, as well as some of the long-term opportunities to deliver value for pension schemes.

As the regulatory landscape evolves, so have the de-risking tools and solutions available to trustees, to help them better secure and protect their members' benefits. Both established providers and new entrants are rising to the challenge of providing greater access and choice for the £1.9 trillion of DB pension liabilities remaining in the UK. In this episode, Frankie Borrell and Alexa Mitterhuber explore some of the different de-risking solutions available to pension schemes.

Dave Poulton, Chief Customer Officer and Yawar Choudhry, Head of Client Services Proposition outline some of the challenges COVID-19 has brought to customer service and what they have learnt through the pandemic. The episode also highlights how the Client Services Team transitioned to remote working, while keeping the customer as top priority and we hear what our customers think about some of the new online processes that were rolled out at the start of lockdown.

Frankie Borrell, Head of Client Solutions and Aysha Patel, Origination & Execution Director talk about how market volatility caused by COVID-19 has led to favourable pricing conditions for Schemes in a position to transact. But when is the right time to de-risk your scheme, what do you need to do to prepare for this, and how do you go about it?

Darryl Brundle, Head of Longevity and Ashley Kanter, Longevity Research and Innovation Specialist talk about the impacts of COVID-19 on mortality rates over the year so far and discuss some of their key findings when analysing Legal & General's internal data. The episode also touches on how this affects the Pension Risk Transfer industry and behavioural changes as a result of the pandemic.  

Chris DeMarco, the Managing Director of our UK PRT business and George Palms, President of Legal & General Retirement America provide a unique overview of our global PRT business. After looking at the first half of the year and discussing the impact of Covid-19, they look ahead to what lies in store for the UK and US PRT markets in 2020 and beyond.

Chris DeMarco, Managing Director of UK PRT and George Palms, President of Legal & General Retirement America, provide a unique overview of our global PRT business. After looking at the first half of the year and discussing the impact of Covid-19, they look ahead to what lies in store for the UK and US PRT markets in 2020 and beyond.