MetLife Retirement & Income Solutions
MetLife's 2025 Pension Risk Transfer Poll
Oct 07, 2025
Tracking PRT Trends for 10 Years
Over the past decade, the U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market has undergone significant transformation, driven by economic shifts, regulatory changes and evolving plan sponsor strategies. For our latest Pension Risk Transfer Poll, celebrating its 10th year, MetLife commissioned a survey of 231 defined benefit (DB) pension plan sponsors who have de-risking goals.
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Most Intend to Completely Divest
Pension risk transfer is increasingly seen not just as a financial strategy, but as an intentional way to ensure benefits promises are kept. Today, 94% of companies with de-risking goals plan to completely divest all their pension plan liabilities — in an average of 3.6 years.
Pension Risk Captures the Attention of Corporate Management
Companies Favor Annuity Buyouts
Nearly eight in 10 plan sponsors will most likely use an annuity buyout to achieve their derisking goals. This is up significantly from the percentage of plan sponsors who said they would be using a buyout, or a buyout in combination with a lump sum, when MetLife commissioned its first PRT Poll in 2015.
Financial Strength is Key
The most important considerations plan sponsors believe they should evaluate for a PRT: financial strength of the insurer, price/cost of the annuity buyout transaction, a strong cybersecurity program and the insurer’s brand/reputation and market leadership.