Investment - Articles - Bulk annuity market had a record-breaking year in 2014

 Legal & General transacted the greatest value of business over 2014 with transaction worth about £6.0bn completed. Their business volumes were helped by one transaction worth £3bn, a new deal size record for an insurer, and another worth £2.5bn. Pension Insurance Corporation followed with over £2.5bn of business. However, while business volumes were significantly up, the number of transactions completed during 2014 actually fell compared to 2013.

  

 Mark Paxton, Senior Bulk Annuity Consultant says:

 “2014 was a record-breaking year for the bulk annuity market. The year was dominated by some very large transactions. It demonstrates that these multi-billion pound transactions can be achieved and, now that this has been done, we anticipate that there will be similar very large transactions in 2015.

 “It is interesting that the number of transactions in 2014 was down from 2013. Pricing increased steeply towards the end of 2014 due to changes in market conditions and this will have impacted affordability for some schemes. However, schemes that have previously de-risked and have matched their investment strategy closely to insurer pricing may still have found pricing attractive.”