U.S. employers used single-premium group annuities to shed more pension risk in the second quarter.
Pension risk transfer volume increased to $8.2 billion in the quarter, from $4.1 billion in the second quarter of 2017, according to new data from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
(Related: Investors Helping Life Insurers Shift to Pension Transfer Market: Analyst)
Insurers reported winning 108 new pension risk transfer contracts. The number of contracts signed in the year-earlier quarter was not immediately available.
Pension risk transfer volume for the first half of the year amounted to $9.6 billion, up from $5.5 billion.
Retirement institute analysts base the pension risk transfer figures on results from a survey of the 15 players in that market.
Wayne Daniel, head of U.S. pensions at MetLife, predicted in June, at a conference organized by S&P Global, that employers would transfer a total of about $20 billion in pension risk.