Defined benefit (DB) superfund Clara-Pensions has onboarded a £40m pension scheme, the second to do so through its dedicated service for smaller schemes.
More than 400 members of the unnamed scheme will join the Clara Pension Trust, the provider announced today (2 September). Clara aims to be a ‘bridge to buyout’ with an insurer.
As well as the scheme’s £40m in assets, Clara will inject additional capital from its investors to enhance the security of member benefits.
The scheme will join a separate pooled section of the Clara Pension Trust, alongside members of the Videndum DB Pension Scheme, which transferred to Clara earlier this year.
Matt Wilmington, chief transactions officer at Clara-Pensions, said: “Smaller schemes have historically had fewer endgame options available to them.
“By bringing schemes together within a pooled section, we can make the benefits of Clara’s model accessible to more members while maintaining the same focus on security and a clear path to buyout.”
Richard Wellard, head of alternative risk transfer solutions at Hymans Robertson, said the transaction provided “compelling evidence that innovative structures can make these endgame solutions commercially viable for a wider range of schemes”.
“From a trustee and sponsor perspective, transactions like this can help reduce governance demands, costs and long-term pension risk, while improving the security of members’ benefits through access to Clara’s capital-backed bridge-to-buyout model,” Wellard continued.
“Just as importantly, greater consolidation creates the scale needed to deliver efficiencies that would be difficult for smaller standalone schemes to achieve on their own. As the market continues to develop, we expect more smaller schemes to explore this route as a practical endgame option that can enhance member outcomes while helping sponsors move closer to resolving their pension obligations.”
