Gowling WLG assists in reducing pension scheme risk

3 minute read
13 May 2021

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A team of experts from Gowling WLG has provided legal advice to the Trustee of the ICL Group Pension Plan, a Fujitsu pension scheme, which has insured longevity risk in respect of £3.7 billion of its liabilities, with Swiss Re providing the reinsurance coverage. Working with its advisers the Trustee was able to optimise pricing by utilising a new Insight Investment platform to provide access to the reinsurance market via a Trustee owned Guernsey insurance cell.

The hedge covers pensions in payment for approximately 9,000 members of the plan and provides long-term protection against additional costs resulting from pensioners or their dependants living longer than expected.

The Gowling WLG legal advisory team was led by partner Paul Feathers, head of the firm's pension risk transfer practice and included experts from the firm's pensions, finance, financial services regulatory, tax and disputes teams.

Commenting on the team's role, Paul said: "It was a pleasure to be a part of this significant de-risking milestone, which has been delivered by a huge team effort from all the parties and their advisory teams. The Gowling WLG team is delighted for the Trustee, our long-standing client."

Willis Towers Watson led the transaction as actuarial and transaction adviser to the Trustee with Gowling WLG LLP and Momentum Investment Solutions and Consulting providing legal and investment advice respectively.

The Gowling WLG pensions team has a market-leading Pensions Risk Transfer practice. It is one of the few teams in the market with the capability and the experience to advise on the full range of pensions risk transfer solutions. The team has advised on many of the industry's significant deals over the last few years. It is currently advising in relation to other longevity swaps and implementing a second capital-backed solution, as well as multiple potential PPF+ transactions and a number of potential 'superfunds' transactions, and multiple insurance buy-ins and buy-outs.

See the coverage of the original client announcement.


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Related   Pensions, Risk Transfer