Bulk Annuity Hub for Trustees

Having completed extensive preparation, the Trustees of the PJH Group Pension Scheme approached the market in the second half of 2024 seeking quotations for a full buy-in.

Following a competitive process and a pitch to Trustees, Utmost was chosen as the Scheme’s preferred insurer for a combination of factors including price and operational capability and a buy-in contract was executed in October 2024. During the subsequent data cleanse activities, in preparation for conversion to buyout, a clear strategic imperative emerged for both Trustee and Sponsor.

Like many Schemes at this stage, the Trustee had not yet implemented GMP equalisation but had agreed on a methodology to do so. The impacts of implementing that methodology were calculated during the data cleanse period but the Trustee approached us with a compelling challenge:

Would we be open to implementing the equalised GMP benefits on our platform at the point of buyout?

There were clear benefits to the Trustee and Sponsor in taking this approach:

• it would eliminate the cost and effort of implementing the equalised benefits on the existing Scheme administrators platform prior to migration at buyout
• it would accelerate the conversion to buyout - removing some uncertainty of timing and saving on the overheads of running the Scheme on

The challenges for us were twofold:

1. implementing GMP equalisation at buyout was a first for us and go live was to coincide with the Scheme’s annual increases
2. We were tasked with completing the buyout before April 2026 to go live with the Trustees calculations of equalised benefits and back payments at that point. Missing that target would lead to the time and expense of recalculating benefits and potentially confusing members communications

Our ethos has always been to put clients and policyholders first and so we were determined to make this work for the Trustees and the Scheme members.

From the outset, we were in a good position to meet the Trustee’s aims, having access to the flexibility and existing functionality of Mantle Administrator. We achieved successful delivery through a combination of factors:

• Dedicating appropriately skilled resources to complete all true-up activity ahead of contractually stated timeframes
• Supporting a cross-party working group to agree all the activity required and the deadlines for delivery
• Working proactively with the Trustee’s advisers to complete payroll reconciliations against the Trustee’s off-platform data
• Collaborating on the member journey to ensure that communications were tailored and scheduled appropriately

We are proud to have completed this complex transition in a controlled manner with minimal disruption to the members as they transitioned to become our policyholders.

The trustees of the Noble Foods Limited Pension Scheme came to market in early 2025 having invested significant time and resource in preparing their data and benefit specification. With that investment in the process, they had a clear desire to secure a buyout at the earliest opportunity.

Ahead of signing a buy-in with the trustees on 7 April 2025, our challenge was clear; to support the trustees with the aim of moving to buyout quickly, securing their member’s benefits and providing the opportunity for the trustees to commence wind-up of their scheme.

With a clear strategy established before execution of the buy-in, we appointed a dedicate transitions manager to work closely with the trustees advisers and set out a credible path to success, underpinned by our flexible approach:

• The scheme data and benefits were configured early on Mantle Administrator, our single-platform technology solution to pricing and administering buy-ins and buyouts
• Preparing the scheme for buyout commenced in parallel with the buy-in data cleanse period placing us in an advance state of readiness
• Premium true-up was accelerated because of our close collaboration in the data cleanse period
• Transition to buy-out was completed in March 2026, eleven months after execution of the buy-in