Insurer predicts pension buyouts boom

An increase in pension buyouts which will boost the value of the market to £12 billion could take place this year.

According to Paternoster, the boom could occur as a result of a growing number of trustees looking to distance themselves from any risks "associated with their final salary schemes", reports the Times.

Mark Wood, chief executive of the specialist insurer, said that around £750 million worth of pension scheme assets had been moved from firms to companies like Paternoster over the course of this last week.

As noted by the newspaper, it has become more pertinent for companies to hand over their scheme liabilities to a specialist insurer in the last few years due to volatile equities, high-performing bond markets and an increase in the average life expectancy of the UK.

Mr Wood told the Times: "There are a lot of schemes asking for quotations right now."

Paternoster currently claims about a fifth of the pension buyout market.