Prudential Retirement announces a new reinsurance counterparty, bringing its support to insurers that make up over 90% of UK pension risk transfer market

Business Wire

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Prudential Retirement^®, a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), and The Phoenix Group, Europe’s largest life and pensions consolidator and one of the fastest-growing providers of life and pension insurance in the United Kingdom, have entered into an inaugural longevity reinsurance agreement covering U.K. retirees.

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Rohit Mathur, Head of International Transactions for Longevity Risk Transfer, Prudential Retirement (Photo: Business Wire)

“We are excited to be working together with Phoenix,” said Christian Ercole, vice president, Longevity Risk Transfer and transaction lead for the Phoenix deal. “It has been a pleasure to witness the successful launch of their pension risk transfer business and we are thrilled to support them by re-insuring their longevity risk.”

Prudential, a recognized leader in the global pension de-risking market, has been innovating and continuously creating new partnerships with pension insurers in the space since the firm’s 2011 launch of its longevity reinsurance product. Prudential’s latest collaboration with Phoenix rounds out its efforts to engage in meaningful partnerships with virtually all of the significant insurance players in the U.K. market. With the addition of Phoenix, Prudential now provides reinsurance support to pension insurers that account for roughly 90% of the annual volume of buy-ins and buy-outs in the U.K.*

“We are delighted to have completed our first longevity reinsurance transaction with Prudential. Phoenix views longevity reinsurance as a key risk management tool,” said Justin Grainger, Phoenix Group’s head of Bulk Purchase Annuities. “This transaction brings further depth to our reinsurer relationships and enhances our ability to offer competitive terms to pension schemes as we continue to develop our de-risking proposition.”

“Prudential has consistently focused on supporting the entire U.K. pension de-risking market,” Rohit Mathur, head of international transactions for Longevity Risk Transfer at Prudential Retirement, said. “The addition of Phoenix is a culmination of our efforts over the past several years to do just that.”

Prudential was advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York and London. Phoenix was advised by Eversheds Sutherland in the U.S.

“We have invested in our pricing and transaction teams and that is especially important right now as U.K. pension schemes are racing to get risk transfer deals over the line during the six-month Brexit delay,” Mathur said. “With so much uncertainty on the horizon, we are happy to be in a position to support the robust pipeline of pension buy-ins and buy-outs seeking to be completed while market conditions hold.”

About Prudential Retirement

Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Services include defined contribution, defined benefit and nonqualified deferred compensation recordkeeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee education and communications, and trustee services, as well as a variety of products and strategies, including institutional investment and income products, pension risk transfer solutions and structured settlement services. With more than 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of 4.4 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $478 billion in retirement account values as of June 30, 2019. Retirement products and services are provided by The Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA), Newark, N.J., or its affiliates.

PICA issued the reinsurance from the United States. Neither PICA nor PRIAC is licensed or regulated by the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority as an insurer or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, nor does either offer reinsurance in the United Kingdom or directly insure U.K. pension risks.

About Prudential Financial, Inc.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with more than $1 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2019, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit news.prudential.com.

About Phoenix Group

Phoenix Group is Europe’s largest life and pensions consolidator, specialising in the acquisition and management of closed life insurance and pension funds – known as heritage books. Phoenix is the largest consolidator of heritage life insurance books in Europe but also runs an open book underpinned by a strategic partnership with Standard Life Aberdeen. The Group is a member of the FTSE 100 index and has over 10 million policies and £226 billion of assets under management – including the recently acquired Standard Life Assurance business. With operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, the Group has four operating life companies which hold policyholder assets, and a distribution business, SunLife Limited.

* Based on information as reported in “Are we at the tipping point? LCP pensions de-risking report: Buy-ins, buy-outs and longevity swaps” by Lane, Clark & Peacock LLP (March 2019).

Insurance products are issued by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company (PRIAC), Hartford, CT, or The Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA), Newark, NJ. Both are Prudential Financial companies. Each company is solely responsible for its financial condition and contractual obligations. © 2019 Prudential Financial, Inc. and its related entities. Prudential, the Prudential logo, the Rock symbol and Bring Your Challenges are service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc., and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.

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