BCG Issues New Special Report: “The Evolution of Pension Risk Transfer in the United States: A 50-Year Timeline (1974-2025)”

BRAINTREE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BCG Pension Risk Consultants | BCG Penbridge (“BCG”) today released a special report tracing the U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market’s 50-year evolution from its origins to the present day. The report identifies over 70 key milestones, and segments the timeline into three distinct periods: Foundational Regulation and Early Guarantees, Market Disruption and Regulatory Recalibration, and “The Modern PRT Market.”

Authored by Steve Keating, Managing Director of BCG, the report—"The Evolution of Pension Risk Transfer in the United States: A 50-Year Timeline (1974-2025)”, serves as a reference for plan sponsors, participants, advisors and consultants, asset managers, insurers, reinsurers, ERISA attorneys, regulators, and other institutional retirement stakeholders. The timeline is grounded in publicly available sources and regulatory and PRT market history, capturing key shifts in regulation and market dynamics, policy milestones, and fiduciary implications.

“This timeline is more than a chronology of the U.S. PRT market,” said Keating. “It documents how regulatory frameworks, fiduciary thinking, and market dynamics have matured over five decades. We offer this timeline as a reference for all U.S. PRT market participants, to provide a foundation for informed dialogue and decision-making in pension risk management.”

“This report prompted my firm’s recent paper addressing PBGC guarantees after pension risk transfers,” said Kevin O’Brien, Partner at Ivins, Phillips & Barker in Washington, DC. “Our discussion of the 1991 PBGC regulation excluding PRT annuities from the guarantee system led me to review the statute and legislative history, which ultimately led to our paper, ‘The Forgotten Promise: Why PBGC Retirement Benefit Guarantees Should Continue After Pension Risk Transfer Transactions’. Steve Keating and BCG’s singular focus on bringing plan sponsors objective PRT market information is directly supporting sponsors in making informed decisions and achieving efficient outcomes for their DB plans. This report goes a step further—it embodies stewardship.”

The BCG Special Report is available at www.bcgpension.com/BCG-Special-Report.

The report is also featured in the November edition of The BCG Pension Insider—the U.S. pension de-risking industry’s most-read monthly newsletter, distributed today. To subscribe to The BCG Pension Insider, visit: https://bit.ly/3Lfznr6

About BCG Pension Risk Consultants | BCG Penbridge
BCG specializes in assisting defined benefit plan sponsors with managing the costs and risks associated with their pension plans. Since 1983, BCG has successfully helped over 3,000 organizations achieve their pension de-risking goals. Our clients range from publicly-traded companies, to privately held firms, and include manufacturing, healthcare, banks and not-for-profit organizations. BCG helps clients with the full range of pension de-risking strategies from liability driven investing approaches to partial or full pension risk transfer, including navigating the complex and lengthy process of plan termination. BCG frequently works in collaboration with plan advisors, consulting actuaries, institutional investment consultants, asset managers, and law firms and maintain established working relationships with each of the insurers active in the U.S. PRT market. BCG is headquartered in Braintree, MA with satellite offices across the US. Please visit our website at: www.bcgpension.com.