Longevity risk transfer news

Life settlement securitizations pose a unique set of risks and are one of the more rarely seen types of asset-backed securities. As a result Standard & Poor’s haven’t ever rated a life settlement securitization transaction, but that could change if issuers can address the risks associated with them.

ALPS Capital II plc, originally issued in December 2005, is an Embedded Value Life-Insurance-Linked Securitization backed by a closed block of life insurance policies. As we wrote in December, the deal had been reassessed for a possible rating upgrade by ratings agency Moody’s. Moody’s now report that it has upgraded the ratings on it’s B, […]

Bloomberg reports today that Scor the French reinsurer is targeting the longevity swap market by establishing a new team in London focused on capturing a portion of the longevity risk transfer sector. Longevity swaps are a growing area of risk transfer which allows pension schemes and insurers to hedge the risk of retirees living longer […]

Standard & Poor’s have today downgraded the ratings of two tranches of life insurance-linked notes issued by Avondale Securities SA. The notes issued by Avondale Securities, a special purpose vehicle set up in Luxembourg by the Bank Of Ireland, were designed to transfer a block of life insurance risk to the capital markets through securitisation […]

Life settlements and the secondary market trading in life policies are becoming an increasingly prevalent insurance-linked investment opportunity for investors, insurance companies seeking to receive value for life policies held and pension firms. They’re also seen as one of the ways you can hedge some longevity risk by buying/trading in policies with a different longevity […]

We’ve received a press release from JPMorgan which gives much more detail on the longevity hedge transaction they have entered into with Pall (which we announced earlier). This deal is groundbreaking in terms of structure and has the potential to accelerate development in the longevity hedging and risk transfer market. The press release in full […]

Sources have told us, and the FT.com is reporting this morning, that JPMorgan have recently completed an important longevity hedging transaction which could help the market achieve its goal of becoming liquid enough for future trading to occur. The deal sees JPMorgan take on £70m worth of the longevity risks of the UK pension scheme […]

Pension Insurance Corporation has announced that it has entered into a pension scheme buyout agreement with trustees of the Honda Group UK Pension Scheme to insure the £7m Honda Racing Development portion of the pension scheme. This effectively transfers the liability for the portion of the Honda scheme to Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC).

Hymans Robertson, the specialist pensions advisory and management firm, has published a report looking at the health of the UK’s FTSE 350 companies pension schemes. The report finds that the aggregate deficit, or shortfall, in these pension schemes has seen a £33 billion improvement. As a result Hymans Robertson suggests that pension schemes focus will […]

Interesting news this morning from Tranen Capital, a provider of alternative investment opportunities particularly around life settlements, who have issued a press release about their life settlements fund which they say is the first to offer investors protection against longevity risk.