- Legacy insured contracts contain unusual benefits, guarantees, investment structures and charges
- Evolving regulatory landscape and financial conditions are driving insurers to withdraw from the market and reduce or outsource services
- Broadstone CARE provides a specialist, experienced framework to help trustees and sponsors maximise value
Broadstone, a leading independent pensions consultancy, has launched Broadstone CARE – a specialist service designed to support trustees and sponsors of defined benefit (DB) schemes that remain in legacy insured contracts.
Many DB schemes hold historic group pension contracts with insurance companies. However, over the years, developing regulation and financial conditions have caused insurers to reduce the services they offer, outsource to external providers and in extreme cases, withdraw from the market altogether.
The contracts were designed in a different time and have unusual benefits, guarantees, investment structures and charges. As a result, trustees and sponsors have been left with complicated schemes, that often feel neglected, suffer potentially high costs and are difficult to exit due to the complexity of the guarantees.
Broadstone CARE follows a simple, four‑stage framework – Collate, Analyse, Recommend and Execute – providing trustees and sponsors with clarity, structure and certainty around costs. It is a full-service proposition that explains the contract and analyses solutions before offering clear advice and effective execution.
The objective of Broadstone CARE is to ensure value is maximised from the contract, whether by retaining it or exiting to Broadstone. In either scenario, the trustees and sponsor will be fully supported to achieve their objectives.
Chris Rice, Head of Trustee Services at Broadstone, commented:
“Legacy insured contracts were a great idea when they were initially set up, providing a ‘one stop shop’ for all services and including valuable investment guarantees.
“However, the evolving regulatory environment and financial conditions have caused insurers to look at ways of reducing their exposure to these contracts, encouraging exit, outsourcing, removal of services or even withdrawing from the market entirely.
“It is important that these schemes receive the necessary, specialist advice to maximise value from either running or exiting the contract and receiving services from a dedicated and attentive team of experts. Broadstone CARE seeks to achieve this and offers a comprehensive process to ensure trustees and sponsors can evaluate their options and maximise value.”
ENDS
Media contacts – Temple Bar Advisory
Alex Child-Villiers / Sam Livingstone / Alistair de Kare-Silver / Juliette Packard
[email protected] / 020 7183 1190
About the Broadstone Group
Broadstone is a leading, independent UK consultancy delivering expert advice to employers, insurers, pension scheme trustees and lenders.
For almost 40 years, Broadstone has been providing its clients with a wide range of specialist services including:
- Employee Benefits Consulting
- Pensions Administration and Actuarial services
- Investment Consulting
- Insurance Consulting across life, non-life, and the Lloyd’s and London markets
- Banking and Credit Advisory
- Financial modelling and data analytics
- Redress calculation
Broadstone’s team comprises over 800 expert consultants and administrators, including more than 85 actuaries, across twelve UK offices.
