IT services organisation Hitachi has completed a pensions bulk annuity transaction with insurer Legal and General Assurance Society, protecting approximately 120 pension scheme members.
The agreement provides insurance cover for 120 members of the Hitachi Data Systems Retirement Benefits Plan, who have retired since 2013 or are deferred pensioners.
This is the third transaction of this kind conducted between Hitachi and Legal and General Assurance Society; the organisation completed two pensioner-only buy-in agreements in 2012 and 2013, insuring the rest of the pension scheme’s membership.
The Hitachi Data Systems Retirement Benefits Plan bases its members’ pension benefit on the higher of their earnings-related defined benefit (DB) pension or their defined contribution (DC) account from employees’ active service period. The agreed transaction enables members to still receive their pension benefit in this way until the scheme is wound up and bought out.
The trustees were advised by consultancy Willis Towers Watson and law firm Gunnercooke, while law firm CMS provided advice to Legal and General Assurance Society.
Neville Byford, chair of the Sefton Park Trustee Company, trustee of the plan, said: “We are pleased to have taken this latest important step in our de-risking journey.
"All parties worked together to find a solution which meets the objectives of the trustee and plan sponsor, [while] protecting the security of members’ benefits.”
