• The first half of 2024 saw 134 buy-ins with a total value of £15.2bn: the highest number of transactions ever recorded in a six-month period.
• Hymans Robertson’s risk transfer team led the advice on two-fifths of these transactions by value.
• Including a flurry of transactions since the middle of the year, it means that we’ve now seen 600 pension scheme buy-ins completed since the start of 2022.
• The majority of those, around 500, have been whole-scheme buy-ins and most will now be looking to transition to buy-out and then the remaining 'empty' pension scheme will be wound up.
• 250+ buy-ins expected to transact over the whole of 2024 – this would be a record number in a calendar year.

The first half of 2024 was another record-breaking period in the risk transfer market, says Hymans Robertson as it releases its biannual risk transfer report published today. The first six months of 2024 saw an unprecedented number (134) of buy-in transactions take place, with the firm’s risk transfer team leading the advice of two-fifths of these transactions by value.

Compared to the second half of 2023, where larger deals dominated the market, the first half of 2024 saw smaller and medium transactions take centre stage. Elsewhere, this period also saw Rothesay’s £6bn acquisition of the Scottish Widows buy-in portfolio in March 2024, and the UK’s second ever superfund transaction with Clara Pensions, securing the liabilities of the £600m Debenhams Retirement Scheme.

Commenting on the findings from the risk transfer report, James Mullins, Partner and Head of Risk Transfer at Hymans Robertson says:

“2024 is shaping up be another fascinating year for the risk transfer market. Insurers have demonstrated that they can handle record buy-in transaction numbers. The question now is how well the insurers will be able to cope with transitioning all the buy-in into buy-outs.

“Indeed, it’s incredible that around 500 whole-scheme buy-ins have completed since the start of 2022. Most of those will now be looking to transition to buy-out and then the remaining 'empty' pension scheme will be wound up. That's a lot of pension schemes looking to transition from buy-in to buy-out and then wind-up. And that trend is set to continue as many pension schemes can afford to fully insure and look to move to buy-out. This could create an administration bottleneck so trustees need to carefully test their chosen insurance company’s capacity for ongoing administration and the transition to buy-out.

“As our report shows, the remainder of 2024 looks to continue on a similar trajectory with plenty more large transactions expected over the coming months, and into 2025. There is a wider range of options for de-risking than ever before with a record eleven insurers now in the marketplace.”