L&G completes £500m buy-in with Deutsche Bank UK pension scheme

Written by Adam Cadle

13/11/2023

The trustees of the Deutsche Bank Defined Benefit (DB) UK Pension Scheme have completed a £500m buy-in with Legal & General Assurance Society, securing the benefits of around 2,000 retirees and deferred members.

The deal, which marks the scheme’s third buy-in but the first to include deferred members, takes the scheme’s total buy-ins to around £1,500m.

It was completed under an existing umbrella contract with Legal & General, allowing the buy-in to be completed "quickly and efficiently" on the same commercial terms.

LCP acted as the lead transaction adviser and provided strategic longevity de-risking advice to the trustee of the scheme, while transaction legal advice was provided to the trustee by CMS.

Aon, meanwhile, acted as scheme actuary and investment adviser, and Slaughter and May as ongoing legal adviser. DLA Piper UK LLP provided legal advice to Legal & General.

Legal & General Retirement Institutional new business and origination lead, Aysha Patel, also highlighted the transaction as a demonstration that "partial buy-ins continue to be an effective de-risking tool for larger schemes on their way to full insurance, allowing them to take advantage of favourable market opportunities when they arise".

This was echoed by LCP partner, David Fink, who said that the phased buy-in strategy has proven "very successful for the scheme".

“Careful thought went into the transaction structure to permit a proportion of deferred liabilities to be included," he continued.

"The phased buy-in strategy has been very successful for the scheme and we were able to leverage its existing relationships and the work completed for previous transactions to secure highly attractive pricing in what is proving to be a very busy market in 2023 with many schemes competing for insurer attention.”

Related Articles