Buy-Outs and Buy-Ins: The Elimination of Defined Benefit Pension Scheme Liabilities

The buy-out market, whereby pension liabilities are transferred to a third-party specialist, has changed dramatically in recent years. Many new market entrants have sought to provide opportunities to employers to reduce or eliminate their exposure to defined benefit pension scheme liabilities in a cost-effective fashion. Increases in anticipated longevity, combined with historically low interest rates and poor equity returns, have resulted in substantially increased costs for employers. Together with the credit crunch, the collapse of high-profile banking institutions and a deteriorating economy, they provide yet further reasons for employers and trustees to seek to protect defined benefit liabilities. Buy-outs (and their alternative, buy-ins) have represented an attractive opportunity for trustees and employers alike in seeking to eliminate such exposure. The number of new market entrants and the new 'non-insured' buy-out model have generated considerable competition and a significant reduction in buy-out and buy-in cost.Featuring contributions by leading experts in the field, including the Pension Corporation, Lucida, Hewitt Associates and Pitmans Trustees Limited, this timely new title covers topics such as the attractions of the current buy-out market, the non-insured buy-out option, the Financial Services Authority regulated market and the elimination of pension scheme liabilities, as well as an overview of the buy-out market in selected countries. This book is aimed at a broad cross-section of the pension market and is intended to be of practical use to trustees, employers, advisers, administrators and other pension stakeholders in providing a comprehensive guide to how best to tackle the thorny issue of eliminating defined benefit scheme liabilities.

Table of contents Preface Background and evolution of today's buyout market Jonathan Bloomer Lucida Attractions of the current buyout market Matthew Preston Herbert Smith LLP Other methods of eliminating defined benefit pension scheme liability Penny Pilzer Lovells LLP The FSA regulated market Mark Wood Paternoster UK Limited The occupational pensions regulated market/the non-insured buy-out option Edmund Truell Pension Corporation LLP Trustee perspective The trustee's perspective David Archer Rosamund Lee Pitmans Trustees Limited The employer's perspective Markus Fink Ashurst LLP An international approach Germany Tobias Neufeld Ashurst Netherlands Bas Cammelbeeck NautaDutilh Norway Peter Hammerich Klaus Henrik Wiese Hansen Bugge, Arentz-Hansen & Rasmussen South Africa Hunter Thyne Hunter Employee Benefits Law (Pte) Ltd Spain Juan Alonso Paz de la Iglesia Francisco de Leon Ashurst Sweden Jenny Jilmstad Jonas Wiberg Ashurst United States Jake Downing Robert Flanagan Mary Samsa Seyfarth Shaw LLP The end game - is buyout the end of the line for defined benefit pension schemes? Martin Hunter Punter Southall Transaction Services The future of the buyout market Kevin Wesbroom Hewitt Associates LLC