Pending DOL Report to Consider Pension Risk Transfer Changes

Large employer pensions looking to offload their funding liabilities through pension risk transfers are anticipating tougher future regulatory scrutiny as the US Labor Department prepares a report for Congress on the $45 billion de-risking market.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration’s report appears likely to propose changes to a 1995 interpretive bulletin on pension risk transfers that laid out standards for employers in selecting third-party insurers to convert plan funds into annuity contracts.

The report to Congress is in the agency’s clearance process, DOL Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Lisa M. Gomez said earlier this month at an American Bar ...