Pacific Life Insurance Company has completed a $35 million Pacific Secured pension Buy-In transaction with American Water Works Association (AWWA), the company has announced.
According to a statement from the company, as of the transaction date this will be the sixth buy-in transaction completed by Pacific Life, and the ninth reported industry-wide.
Kevin Mann, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of AWWA, the largest organization of water-supply professionals in the world, said; “AWWA was pleased to be able to execute a strategy where we could effectively eliminate the financial risks of the plan and solidify our participants’ retirement benefits with a very strong company. Now, we can go through the regulatory process of plan termination and focus on the administrative aspects without the risks and complications that would have been necessary with other approaches.”
The announcement reveals that Qualified Annuity Services, Inc. (QAS) has been assisting AWWA to identify risks and providing modelling of risk transfer pricing, and the company’s President, Joe Bellersen, also discussed the new deal.
“We were able to implement a strategy within a few critical weeks after more than four years of planning. We placed an annuity with Pacific Life earlier than AWWA’s five- to eight-year timeline for full plan termination and substantially under budget,” said Bellersen.
Richard Taube, Chief Financial Advisor, Vice President of institutional products for Pacific Life’s Retirement Solutions Division, added; “We are pleased to have been able to work with QAS and quickly implement an appropriate de-risking solution for AWWA.
“This transaction confirms to plan sponsors the unique benefits of a buy-in approach. We appreciate the trust AWWA put with Pacific Life and our Buy-In annuity.”
