PRT Volume Declines in H1 2025

Over the next decade, industry observers project some 400 billion pounds ($541 billion) of pension liabilities in the U.S. and Canada will be replaced with annuities, according to Legal & General Retirement America’s “2025 Global PRT Monitor.”

Another 600 billion pounds of liabilities are expected to be transferred in the U.K. over the same period, the firm estimates. 

In 2024, $51.8 billion in pension risk transfers was recorded globally, slightly lower than the record of $51.9 billion in 2022. The PRT market has been growing rapidly as more corporate pension funds, which overwhelmingly have a surplus of assets, look to offload the responsibility of their pension obligations to insurers.

In 2025, market volatility has slowed the number of jumbo transactions—those worth more than $1 billion—completed in the U.S., although activity remains high, Legal & General reported. In 2024, seven such transactions occurred, but in the first half of 2025, only one jumbo PRT transaction took place.

In the first quarter of the year, U.S. PRT volume totaled $7.1 billion, a decline of more than 50% from the first quarter of 2024, when PRT volume hit $14.6 billion. Legal & General estimated there was $11 billion in U.S. PRT volume for the first half of this year, compared with $26 billion in the first half of 2024.

Legal & General noted that buy-in transactions, in which the plan sponsor manages retirement benefits but holds the group annuity contract in the plan, are becoming more popular in the U.S. Traditionally in the U.S. market, nearly all PRT transactions were buyouts, in which the insurer assumes full responsibility for paying all plan liabilities and managing participant administration.

Legal & General expects buy-in transactions to increase 50% this year from prior years.

“The majority of these buy-ins are for full terminations, where the plan sponsor looks to lock in pricing early on in their termination process and transition to buyout when ready,” Legal & General noted in the report.

October Three Consulting, in a report published last week, noted that annuity purchase interest rates have remained stable over the past few months, making now an attractive time to complete PRTs. 

“Acting now is vital,” October Three stated in the report. “Plan sponsors who move quickly can take advantage of current stability and avoid the risk of transacting in a more volatile period.”

The U.K. has also seen its second-largest year of PRT volume in 2025. In 2024, transaction volumes stood at 47.8 billion pounds across a record 299 transactions, including a record 14 buy-in transactions worth more than 1 billion pounds.

Legal & General expects a similar level of activity in the U.K. this year, with PRT volumes estimated to reach between 40 billion pounds and 50 billion pounds.