Pensions - Articles - Kingfisher completes largest medically underwritten buy-in

 “Medically underwritten buy-ins have now covered over £2 billion of liabilities, including a record breaking £1 billion of medically underwritten buy-ins in the fourth quarter of 2015 alone. They represented over 12.5% of all bulk annuities purchased by pension schemes during 2015 (i.e. for every £8 spent on bulk annuities in 2015, more than £1 was on medically underwritten buy-ins). This is significant growth from around 5% in 2014.”

 “Market share in the medically underwritten buy-in market up to 31 December 2015 is around 60% for Just Retirement, around 30% for Partnership (who are due to merge on 4 April 2016 to form JRP) and around 10% for Legal & General, with Aviva having also written one medically underwritten buy-in.”

 “At £228m this is the largest medically underwritten buy-in to date and Kingfisher becomes the third FTSE 100 company to have completed a medically underwritten buy-in, all of which have been “top slice” transactions, which insure the pensioners with the highest individual liabilities. ”

 “Hymans Robertson has been the leading pioneer in the medically underwritten buy-in market, having advised on 1 in 4 of all these types of deals.”