Phoenix Group has boosted its bulk annuity team with five new appointments.
Priyesh Patel has joined as an investment analyst, while the company has also recruited Shoyab Alli, Sam Young, Miles Smith and Alex Oakley to its pricing team.
Phoenix says these appointments reflect its ambition to grow its bulk purchase annuities franchise by building a best in class asset capability, expanding the proposition and developing its operating model.
All appointments have extensive experience in this industry, having previously worked across a number of specialists including Aon, Lane Clark & Peacock, KPMG and Willis Towers Watson.
Within the bulk annuities market, Phoenix Group has written £5.7bn of bulk purchase annuities to date. It recently completed an £800 million buy-in with the trustee of the LV= employee pension scheme and a £360 million deal with the trustee of Marks and Spencer pension scheme.
Phoenix Group’s head of bulk purchase annuities Justin Grainger says: “We have a proven ability to work collaboratively to execute BPA transactions effectively and we see room for growth, focusing on value not volume.
“We aim to be a market leading BPA franchise and understand that key to achieving this is recruiting the best talent available in the market and we will continue to search for the best candidates to add to our growing team.”
The potential market for BPAs in the UK equates to circa £1.2 trillion of liabilities which are sufficiently funded for a buy-in or buy-out.