The Wood Pension Plan has completed a £1.65bn (€1.9bn) buy-in with Legal & General (L&G), securing benefits for all its 16,400 members.
For this transaction, member experience was a decisive factor in the trustee’s insurer selection process, with L&G’s in-house administration and customer service teams proving a key differentiator.
L&G said the transaction reflects a wider shift in the pension risk transfer (PRT) market, with trustees placing increasing weight not only on price and execution certainty, but also on the quality of member experience after a transaction completes.
Recent research commissioned by L&G found that, outside of price, insurer financial strength and member experience were the dominant priorities for trustees, together accounting for almost 90% of first-choice rankings.
LCP acted as lead transaction adviser. The fund trustees were advised by Gowling WLG, while the Wood Group was advised by Pinsent Masons. L&G was advised by CMS.
Mervyn Walker, chair of Wood Pensions Trustee, said: “The buy-in is a significant milestone for the Wood Pension Plan in reducing risk and improving further the security of our members’ benefits. The trustee’s objectives in approaching the market were to secure excellent value for money and to ensure that the outstanding service we provide to members through the Wood Pensions team would continue into the long-term future. In L&G, we are confident that we have selected a partner that fully meets our objectives, while also sharing our values and commitment to member service and experience.”
Elaine Hanna, head of global retirement at Wood Group, added: “The completion of this buy-in is an important step in securing the long-term future of the Wood Pension Plan. It provides greater certainty for our members while significantly reducing pension risk for Wood. Throughout the process, we have worked closely with the trustee, supported by our advisers and L&G, with a shared focus on achieving a positive long-term outcome for members.”
Gareth Mee, chief executive officer of institutional retirement at L&G, said: “Working closely with the trustee, sponsor and LCP, we were able to deliver our shared goal of securing members’ benefits and ensuring they are well supported over the long term. The importance placed on member experience and cultural alignment speaks directly to what L&G’s institutional retirement business has built over the last four decades: deep PRT expertise, a trusted brand and the experience needed to support customers well beyond the point of transaction.”
Mee added that as the market continues to grow, the insurer’s focus will remain on using its scale and capabilities selectively to support high-quality transactions that deliver lasting value for schemes and their members.
Last year, L&G dominated the UK’s pension risk transfer industry with 27% of the market share and £10.2bn worth of transactions. In its financial results, L&G said it has a “healthy PRT pipeline” for the current year, including £17bn of transactions that it is “actively pricing on”. It expects the overall PRT market volumes to be around £50bn and an increase in large transactions compared to 2025.
The report said: “We already have sight of 10 transactions over £1bn that may complete in 2026, with the majority expected to complete in the second half of the year.”
