“Our aim is to make the journey to ongoing administration as smooth as possible.”

Rob Mechem Director of DB Business Development

We know that bulk annuity transactions aren’t something most trustees and their administrators do every day. But our team are specialists and they know buy-ins and buy-outs inside out. So, we can guide you and your administrator to help ensure there are no surprises and the journey to ongoing administration is a smooth one.

Helping you prepare for a bulk annuity

Preparation has always been important for trustees approaching the bulk annuity market. But with relatively high demand for bulk annuity services, this has become critical as insurers have lots of choice where to participate.

Trustees can still obtain attractive prices. But insurers are looking for schemes that can provide evidence of careful preparation and a thought through transaction process, reflecting an in-depth understanding of how insurers operate, before schemes come to market. Why? Because this improves certainty the transaction will complete and minimises effort to re-price after the transaction.

Being well prepared is especially important for small schemes, which can find it harder to engage insurers when the market is strong, and insurers are focussed on larger transactions.

We’re always happy to speak with trustees informally or to present formally at trustee boards to discuss your plans for a bulk annuity or to provide training. 

Monthly pricing updates

We can normally supply your de-risking adviser with pricing points that provide indicative pricing for a typical scheme member across a combination of age and pension increase ranges.

Your de-risking adviser may then estimate bulk annuity pricing to support discussions with trustees who are thinking about approaching the bulk annuity market. Our pricing points can also be used to develop in-house solvency estimates for triennial valuations.

Indicative bulk annuity pricing

We work with professional and other trustees who want to take a more active approach to planning a bulk annuity by supplying indicative pricing updates early, at the start of the planning process and sometimes even before they engage a de-risking adviser.

Many schemes can already afford buy-out or are much closer than they think. Indicative pricing can confirm whether there’s any funding gap to buy-out for your scheme. And even if there is a gap, it might be smaller than you think.

We can also work with trustees to help schemes improve data quality to meet the standards required to progress a transaction. Indicative pricing empowers trustees to:

• align trustee boards behind a bulk annuity transaction if they know it’s affordable
• approach their sponsor early to negotiate any contribution required; and
• if we’ve helped you improve data quality, you can secure more accurate and often lower pricing because marital data is more complete.

If we’re already working with you to provide indicative pricing, we’ll know you’re serious about securing a bulk annuity, so we’ll be more likely to provide access to guaranteed pricing when you’re ready to transact. This can be especially valuable for smaller schemes.

Find out more about how to access an indicative quotation by downloading our guide to accessible feasibility quotations or speak to any member of our business development team.

“As a professional trustee and a legal adviser specialising in helping small schemes (some as small as £1.6m) , being able to access guaranteeable insurer pricing and transact quickly at a time when I know insurers are very busy has been a welcome surprise. I have seen at first hand on multiple occasions the client delight experienced by this game changing offering from Just and it is a complete breath of fresh air.”

Suresh Bhatt, gcTrustees

Price certainty for your bulk annuity during exclusivity

Our premiums are guaranteed at the point we supply our best and final quote. This means the pricing assumptions underlying our quote don’t change whilst we negotiate the contract with you and your lawyers.

Once we’ve been selected for a bulk annuity, we are normally granted a period of exclusivity for contracts to be negotiated. Many trustees want price certainty during exclusivity and until they sign the contract.

We can provide this with a transparent price tracking mechanism known as a price lock. This gives trustees the option to hedge the assets they’ve earmarked for the transaction against movements in our price due to market conditions.

Putting a hedge in place costs money, but it’s optional for the trustees. It’s a cost / benefit decision in which trustees either pay to hedge or they take a position in the market.

Support for you during data cleanse

Transition is the stage after signing a bulk annuity. One of our transition managers will be your main point of contact:

• they’ll own the transition process for your scheme, project managing and working with your administrator to guide them through the data cleanse, so you don’t have to
• they’ll keep you informed of progress and highlight any delays or issues so there are no surprises along the way; and
• can provide valuable regular pricing updates so you know the cost of your next transaction.

We’re flexible on the timeline to true-up and we’ve got strong relationships with most administrators – it all helps make the data cleanse and true-up run smoothly.

Read our guide to bulk annuity transitions to find out more.

“The transition was smooth, Just made the data cleanse and true-up easy for me and my administrator.”

Jon Sharp, Director, Western Pension Solutions

Training for trustees

We’re happy to speak directly with trustees either informally or at trustee board meetings on all aspects of the bulk annuity process including preparing data and benefits, ongoing pricing and guaranteed minimum pension equalisation.

Please contact any member of our business development team to arrange a meeting.

Preparing your scheme for buy-out

We manage a steady stream of buy-outs. Our team have completed over 60 buy-outs and are responsible for thousands of former members who are now our policyholders. They ensure buy-out is smooth for trustees and your members by:

• working with your administrator to set-up and test payroll with our administration partner
• preparing and issue policy documents so your lawyer and you can check policies are consistent with scheme rules and deliver the insured benefits; and
• issuing welcome packs to your members at which point all responsibility for the scheme transfers to us.