Prudential Retirement, a unit of Prudential Financial, and Legal & General Group have signed their sixth longevity reinsurance agreement since 2014.
The Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company (PRIAC) assumes longevity risk for approximately $800 million (£600 million) in pension liabilities, which are held by Legal & General as part of its bulk annuity business.
The transaction covers more than 2,000 pensioners. Legal & General and Prudential have now partnered on six transactions that together reinsure nearly $8 billion in longevity risk.
The agreement signals the resurgent market for longevity reinsurance and de-risking solutions in the U.K. in 2017, with market volumes up significantly since the 2016 Brexit vote. The de-risking of pension schemes has become an expectation among shareholders and key stakeholders in companies across the globe.
“Prudential is proud to strengthen its partnership with Legal & General,” said David Lang, Prudential’s lead negotiator for this transaction. “As a result of these agreements, Legal & General can better manage its longevity risk and secure the retirement benefits of thousands of U.K. pensioners.” Prudential’s most recent transaction with Legal & General prior to this was in October 2016.
Joyeeta Kanungo, head of new business reinsurance for Legal & General, said: “This transaction marks a furthering of our partnership with Prudential, whose expertise and strength we value highly. The transaction is also another example of longevity reinsurance having a positive impact in enabling U.K. pension schemes to de-risk efficiently with a strong insurer such as Legal & General.”
Bill McCloskey, Prudential’s head of transactions for international longevity reinsurance, said, “The longevity reinsurance market is more vibrant than ever, especially in the U.K. With this agreement, Legal & General is tapping into Prudential’s unique ability to keep up with the huge demand in the market today, and benefits from our use of predictive analytics and the strongest transaction team in the industry. These investments have enabled Prudential to develop and sustain meaningful relationships with its insurance counterparties.”
Legal & General is one of the U.K.’s leading financial services companies. It has been active in the pension de-risking market for more than 30 years.
Prudential is a global leader in the pension reinsurance market with more than $45 billion in international reinsurance transactions since 2011, including the largest longevity risk transfer transaction on record, a $27.7 billion transaction involving the BT Pension Scheme. Prudential was named “Reinsurer of the Year” in 2017 by Risk.net for the fourth year in a row.