Moving from buy-in to buyout: How fast can schemes go?

At a recent event hosted by the Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) focusing on defined benefit (DB) risk transfer, the trade body asked more than 400 attendees what percentage of schemes they believe will be able to complete the transition from buy-in to buyout within three years.

More than two-thirds of respondents (69%) said they believed less than half of all schemes that have completed a buy-in would convert this to a buyout by 2029.

This included almost half (47%) who expected between 26% and 50% of bought-in schemes to convert.

“Careful planning, clear communication and early preparation are critical to ensuring schemes can move efficiently from buy-in to buyout within a realistic timeframe.”

Sanjay Gupta, Bestrustees

Sanjay Gupta, professional trustee at Bestrustees and chair of the SPP event, said: “While the market appetite for buy-ins remains strong, this industry polling highlights that completing the journey can be far from a speedy process. Trustees must be prepared for a complex post-transaction phase – from data cleansing and benefit specification to insurer engagement and governance sign-off.

“Careful planning, clear communication and early preparation are critical to ensuring schemes can move efficiently from buy-in to buyout within a realistic timeframe.”

A swift move to a buyout has become a greater focus for those involved in bulk annuity transactions in recent months. Earlier this month, Standard Life insured Deloitte’s pension scheme in a £700m transaction and aims to convert this to a buyout by April this year, aided by the insurer agreeing to carry out guaranteed minimum pension equalisation.

Jill Ampleford, partner and head of trustee consulting at LCP, has previously highlighted clearing the backlog of bought-in schemes as one of the biggest challenges for the DB sector this year.

She told Pensions Expert: “Insurers have written record volumes of transactions in recent years, and this surge in activity combined with operational pressures across administrators means that schemes can find themselves in an extended holding pattern… The key challenge for 2026 will be maintaining momentum without being overwhelmed by regulatory, operational, and market-capacity constraints.”

Research by Hymans Robertson found that there were 140 buy-ins completed in the first half of 2025 that were valued at less than £100m, accounting for more than 85% of all buy-ins in the period. Sub-£100m buy-ins have been steadily increasing in number over the past two years, the data showed.