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The Medical Protection Society Pension Scheme has completed a £125m buy-in with Rothesay, covering 174 pensioners and dependants and 444 deferred members.
This was the scheme’s first buy-in. As it was in surplus, no contribution from the scheme sponsor was needed. The society that sponsors the scheme is a member-owned, not-for-profit protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals.
“Following the diligent advice and guidance of Isio and Gowling, we gained the interest of five insurers,” said Colin Richardson at Zedra Governance, the scheme’s sole trustee.
Richard Pile, chief financial officer at the Medical Protection Society, said: “Given improved funding levels and the hard work we put into preparing the scheme for its endgame, we were able to work quickly with all parties to achieve a great outcome in a busy market.”
Isio was the lead broker for the deal, while Gowling WLG gave legal advice to the trustees, and Eversheds Sutherland to Rothesay.
Senior deal manager at Isio, Tom Ridley, said it was pleasing to see such high levels of insurer engagement in a busy market. It demonstrates “the continued attractiveness of mid-sized schemes who set clear objectives”, he added.
Katie Overton, business development at Rothesay, said: “In a very buoyant market, this was a well prepared scheme which supported the quick and efficient execution of this derisking transaction. Following a busy first quarter this year, Rothesay continues to see very strong momentum in the pension risk transfer market with an unprecedented pipeline of new business.”
The specialist insurer has announced several large deals recently, including a £1.4bn buy-in of the Rexam Pension Scheme in January, a £2.7bn transaction with Thales UK in December and a £4bn buy-in with the Co-operative Pension Scheme in November last year.
In March, Rothesay revealed that it had agreed to acquire a roughly £6bn bulk annuity portfolio of Scottish Widows from Lloyds Banking Group, covering 42,000 underlying policyholders.
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