Legal & General has completed the UK's largest medically underwritten bulk annuity deal with a UK defined benefit pension scheme.

The deal is a buy-in for around GBP 230m in pension liabilities, covering specific scheme members.

L&G's pension risk transfer team wrote more than GBP 1.1bn of business during the last quarter of 2015, with transactions covering 13 schemes and more than 18,000 members.

Legal & General Retirement internationalised its business in 2015, with entry into the US and European pension risk transfer markets.

In October it announced its first pension risk transfer deal with the US subsidiary of Royal Philips for approximately USD 450 million (GBP 300million) and in December it completed a EUR 200 million (GBP 147million) reinsurance deal with ASR Nederland NV, a Dutch Insurer.

Kerrigan Procter, managing director of Legal & General Retirement, said: "The deal signed off an excellent year for the business, with our entry into the US and Dutch pension risk transfer markets, and our first medically underwritten bulk annuity deal completed."

"We enter 2016 with a strong international pipeline. I'm confident we'll build on the success of 2015 this year."
Strategic pension risk transfer director at Legal & General Cheryl Agius said: "We are delighted to be working together on pension risk transfer in this innovative way.

This deal is an exciting fusion of our enhanced annuity underwriting capability with our bulk annuity experience, and it illustrates how we can offer further flexibility to our clients as they take steps to de-risk their defined benefit pension schemes."

Globally as at 30 September 2015, Legal & General manages an annuity book of over GBP 43 billion, and provides annuity benefits to over a million customers.

First published 08.01.2016

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com