
Myles advises pension schemes on removing risk through insurance-based solutions: buy-ins, buy-outs and longevity swaps.
He works with pension schemes that are at varying stages in their de-risking journey towards their chosen end state of full insurance. While this work can involve partial de-risking along the journey, it also involves planning required to get their assets allocated appropriately and their data cleansed to a high standard to attract insurer engagement in their process.
Myles began his time in this market as one of the founding management team at Paternoster in 2006 and transferred to Rothesay Life when it acquired Paternoster in 2011. For 8 years he worked on the insurance side of the business structuring and negotiating buy-ins, buy-outs and longevity swaps including some of the first buy-ins (e.g. the £813m buy-in for P&O in 2007), the £3bn longevity swap for BMW in 2011 and buy-outs for a number of clients. Since joining LCP in March 2014, Myles has advised trustees (often working collaboratively with their corporate sponsors) of a number of pension schemes on insurance de-risking transactions including:
- Philips Pension Fund on 4 buy-in transactions, leading to a full buy-out (totalling over £3.5bn).
- Total (UK) Pension Plan on its £1.6bn collateralised buy-in.
- M&S Pension Scheme on 6 buy-in transactions, covering more than 50% of the Scheme’s pensioners.
- The conversion of the LV Employee Pension Scheme’s longevity swap into a c.£800m buy-in.
- Heathrow’s BAA Pension Scheme on a £370m buy-in.
- A c.£1bn longevity swap for a pension scheme with a bank sponsor.
- WH Smith Pension Trust on a £1.2bn full buy-in.
Many of these transactions have been implemented as part of a long-term strategy to de-risk towards a targeted end state. A number of the full buy-ins he has worked on, have involved adding residual risks cover.
Central to success in all the transactions he has worked on, has been a need to prepare well, work collaboratively with other advisers and do what we say we will do, at the time we said we would do it.