EDS to PIC to Athora

MouldyOldDough

My EDS pension has been sold again to a company named Athora - has anyone heard of them ?

This was done without my knowledge (I only discovered on-line)

It was only sold to PIC last year

MyRealNameToo

MouldyOldDough said:

My EDS pension has been sold again to a company named Athora - has anyone heard of them ?

This was done without my knowledge (I only discovered on-line)

It was only sold to PIC last year

PIC have been bought by Athora but it is still PIC that will be providing the annuity just their shareholders have changed. 

I am guessing EDS did a buy out with PIC so they used their funds to buy an annuity that mirrored the terms of your pension. It will go through an extensive process to decide to do the deal with PIC rather than another insurer, unless they did a buy in before in which case the process was some time prior, and this doesnt require member approval. 

Had they actually sold your annuity itself to another firm that would be required to go through a Part VII transfer process under the Financial Services and Markets Act. The purchase of the company itself will require regulatory approval but not court approval. 

xylophone

https://www.pensioncorporation.com/news-insights/press-releases/2022/eds-1994-pension-scheme-secures-p1-1-billion-full-scheme-buy-in-

https://www.cvc.com/media/news/2025/athora-to-acquire-pension-insurance-corporation-group/

MyRealNameToo

xylophone said:

https://www.pensioncorporation.com/news-insights/press-releases/2022/eds-1994-pension-scheme-secures-p1-1-billion-full-scheme-buy-in-

So the first story confirms the pension did a buy in in 2022 and then based on the OP's comments, they completed the buy out in 2024

Unfortunately these may not help the OP unless they understand both these concepts. 

Buy-In - the pension scheme secures bulk annuity that pays out to them an amount each month/quarter based on which of their pensioners have survived the month, its often fairly similar to what they will be paying out but doesnt have to be identical and some simplifications arent uncommon to achieve a lower price

Buy-out - can be done directly but more often its a buy-in that moves to a buy out - the bulk annuity gets split into individual annuities for each pensioner and the money starts being paid directly to the pensioners. By this point the annuities have to match the terms of the policy which may or may not result in additional premiums being paid to the insurer. Sometimes the scheme has excess funds and may buy some additional benefits for some/all of their members. 

Both are a risk transfer mechanism for the pension scheme, the later, combined with a tail liabilities insurance policy for the trustees can allow the scheme to be closed down with all risks now being held by insurers. 

Marcon

MouldyOldDough said:

My EDS pension has been sold again to a company named Athora - has anyone heard of them ?

This was done without my knowledge (I only discovered on-line)

It was only sold to PIC last year

Athora's acquisition of PIC is pretty recent, and they were hardly going to announce it to pensioners before the deal was signed!

There's nothing for you to worry about; you will continue to have 100% FSCS protection, given that this remains classed as 'long term insurance business'.