Pension De-Risking Market Booming Alongside Wave of Lawsuits

Insurers absorbing large corporate pensions posted a record-breaking third quarter, topping more than $14 billion, according to new industry data, signaling another big year in 2025 for pension risk transfers.

New legal threats the industry faces could roll over into the new year, however, as regulators consider retrofitting the conditions plans have to meet before they shed risk and private-sector plaintiffs launch a new wave of lawsuits targeting risk transfers. Pension risk transfers, or PRTs, offer companies a way to shed the liability of sponsoring a stock market-dependent benefit plan to an insurance company.

Nearly half of third-quarter pension risk ...