Legal & General wins 3bn-pound bulk annuity deal

Financial services firm Legal & General has won a bulk annuity arrangement with the ICI Pension Fund covering 3bn pounds of its liabilities, the largest ever bulk annuity policy arranged by a pension scheme in the UK.It is thought that bulk annuities, which accounted for 70% of the company's own annuity sales last year, will be unaffected by the proposed shake-up of the savings market in last week's Budget, as opposed to individual annuities to pensioners."Legal & General has identified retirement solutions as one of its five drivers of growth, and the bulk annuity market forms a significant part of this growth," the company said.The company estimates that the UK has around £1.8trn of defined benefit pension liabilities with around £600bn of liabilities relating to pensions in payment."We expect to see continued growth in the bulk annuity market both in the UK and overseas," said Kerrigan Procter, the Managing Director of Legal & General's Retirement division. "Our leadership in investment management and longevity, and our strength in both the accumulation and decumulation phases of pension savings mean we are uniquely positioned to capitalise on rising demand for liability driven investing, longevity insurance, buy-in and buy out."BC