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MetLife Retirement & Income Solutions
Longevity Reinsurance

Longevity Reinsurance

Leverage our expertise and capacity to reduce the longevity risk exposure associated with your UK based pension liabilities.

Background

As life expectancies lengthen, the amount of pension obligations for pension schemes and annuity insurers is growing. And, in today’s economic environment, hedging longevity risk (i.e., the chance that pensioners live longer than expected), particularly during periods of market volatility, is extremely challenging.

With these rising concerns, the demand for de-risking solutions continues to grow, and ways to mitigate risks associated with pension scheme obligations is top of mind. MetLife offers offshore reinsurance capabilities which can help pension scheme sponsors, and annuity insurers who execute pension buy-outs and buy-ins, reduce the cost and risk associated with managing pension related liabilities.

Our Solution

Uncertainty around longevity makes it challenging for scheme sponsors and annuity insurers to invest to meet future liabilities, especially when there is significant capital required to be held against these liabilities due to solvency requirements in certain instances. MetLife’s Longevity Reinsurance solution can enable pension scheme sponsors, and annuity insurers to offload longevity risk by tapping into MetLife’s deep expertise and over a century of experience supporting the management of pension-related risks over a broad range of economic cycles. With a strong ability to hedge longevity risk in all market environments, we’ll work with you to develop a straightforward and seamless longevity reinsurance execution – backed by the strong balance sheets and market commitments of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC) and Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company (Met Tower Life) – to ensure that long-term promises made to pensioners are honored.

How it Works

Through a bespoke arrangement, longevity reinsurance converts uncertain future pension payments into a fixed cashflow stream over time by locking in or covering the life expectancy of plan participants. An annual premium plus an annual fee is paid by the pension scheme sponsor or annuity insurer to MLIC or Met Tower Life, serving as the reinsurer. In turn, MLIC or Met Tower Life ensures certainty of the future pension payments which provides a stabilizing factor to scheme funding levels and reduces required capital.

Our Advantage

MetLife Retirement & Income Solutions is here to help guide the far-reaching, consequential de-risking solutions that will impact pensioners for decades. We share your commitment of providing pension scheme members and policyholders with a guaranteed pension benefit.¹

Our actuarial, underwriting, risk, legal and operational expertise, coupled with our management of our diversified investment portfolio, enables us to customize the right solution for your unique needs.

MetLife has over a 150-year history of developing innovative solutions, so you can feel confident about partnering with us. MetLife’s long history and experience in managing risk sets us apart.

Why Choose MetLife?

Expertise At Your Side

Rely on our dedicated team of longevity reinsurance experts. Our actuarial, risk, legal and operational expertise enables us to customize the right solution for your unique needs

Financial Strength

Our financial strength ratings are among the highest in the industry. See how the top financial rating agencies have assessed our financial stability

See our current ratings

A Trusted Partner

With our team of experts specializing in UK longevity reinsurance, you can feel confident partnering with us to help offset the potential long-term risk associated with your pension scheme obligations

Collaborative

We’ll work with you to develop a straightforward and seamless reinsurance execution to maximize efficiency of the longevity risk transfer

^1. All guarantees are subject to the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuing MetLife insurance company.

Reinsurance contracts are issued by Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, authorized and regulated by the Nebraska Department of Insurance (“Met Tower Life”), Lincoln, Nebraska, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, authorized and regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (“MLIC”), New York, NY, both wholly owned subsidiaries of MetLife. Met Tower Life and MLIC are solely responsible for their financial conditions and contractual obligations. Neither Met Tower Life nor MLIC are licensed or regulated by the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority as insurers or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, nor do they conduct business in the U.K. or provide direct insurance to any individual or entity therein. Met Tower Life and MLIC are not authorized or regulated by supervisory authorities in the European Economic Area.

Any discussion of taxes is intended to be general in nature. The tax law is subject to change and to different interpretations. We do not provide tax or legal advice and are not responsible for the tax consequences of such arrangements; nor do we represent or guarantee that tax deferral of annuity payments until received can be achieved. Interested parties should consult with their own tax advisors to determine whether the desired tax treatment can be achieved and whether the taxation of such arrangements could be adversely impacted under federal tax laws, including Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.