On the go: The £5.1bn Morrison and Safeway Care Schemes, which include the Wm Morrison 1967 Section of the Morrisons Retirement Saver Plan and the Safeway Pension Scheme, entered into two new buy-in policies during the year to January 2021.
The schemes’ sponsor Morrisons’ annual report reveals that the buy-ins were completed to “provide insurance for a proportion of the pensioner populations”. However, the schemes did not disclose whom the buy-in policies are with.
These buy-ins are in addition to two buy-in policies previously secured by the Safeway Scheme. One of the transactions was completed in 2018, as reported by MandateWire.
As a result of the buy-ins, the schemes’ combined allocation to annuity policies increased by 5.4 percentage points to 18.3 per cent over the year to January 31 2021.
Meanwhile, exposure to liability-driven investments decreased by 4.1 percentage points, to 51.4 per cent from 55.5 per cent.
Regarding Covid-19, the schemes stated that they are well funded, which enabled conservative/derisked investment strategies. The funding has been resilient throughout the pandemic.
The report explains that the current investment strategy is to maintain a balance of growth assets (equities), income assets (comprising credit investments and corporate bonds), and protection assets (comprising a LDI portfolio and four buy-in annuity policies), with a weighting towards protection assets.
This article originally appeared on MandateWire.com.
