Offer to companies to transfer existing pension obligations to an external pension company
Advantage: final exemption from pension risks in legal, accounting and economic terms
Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) and Deutsche Betriebsrenten Holding (DBR Holding) have entered into a strategic cooperation to jointly offer companies in Germany tailor-made offers for the transfer of pension obligations to an external pension company. The sole purpose of operation of such a pension company is to service the transferred pension claims on the basis of adequate financial resources.
DBR Holding acts as the sole (risk) bearer of pensioner companies and focuses on the long-term protection, administration and fulfillment of the transferred pension obligations. AllianzGI supports the determination of the necessary financing requirements as well as the derivation of longevity and capital market assumptions. In addition, AllianzGI brings in the company’s extensive capital investment know-how and, through the involvement of Allianz Treuhand, ensures insolvency protection and earmarking of the assets available to fund the pension obligations.
dr Thomas Bloch, Managing Director of DBR Holding , comments: “Many companies in Germany are facing major challenges with the pension commitments they have made in the past. DBR Holding was founded a few years ago with the aim of enabling companies to cede the risks and entitlements from defined benefit plans in a legally and economically liberating manner, while at the same time securing and significantly improving the position of former employees as beneficiaries today. Through the partnership with AllianzGI, for the first time a leading asset manager is behind the model of the external pension company and thus underlines a fundamental commitment to the development of this pension buyout solution on the German market”.
Dirk Popielas, Managing Director of DBR Holding , adds: “With the cooperation of two strong partners, it is now possible to create an instrument for companies in Germany to put the old company pension commitments in permanently safe hands. As a result, companies gain creative freedom for the forthcoming further developments of their business models.”
Michael Seedorff, Managing Director of Allianz Corporate Pension Advisors at AllianzGI , adds: “With DBR Holding as the risk carrier, AllianzGI’s comprehensive pension expertise and the involvement of Allianz Treuhand, we have created a governance structure for the pension company that is unique in Germany. In addition to the immediate benefit of the complete relief of pension obligations, the joint offer by DBR Holding and AllianzGI companies offers long-term stability-oriented implementation of the transfer to an external pension company.”
Heiko Wunderlich, Head of Institutional Business Development Germany & Austria at AllianzGI, explains: “Even if the phase of negative interest rates in Europe is now over, the low actuarial interest rate will weigh heavily on the pension obligations of German companies for a long time to come. Companies have been transitioning from defined benefit to defined contribution plans for some time now, and AllianzGI has been a long-standing partner to many. An economically and legally liberating outsourcing of existing pension obligations to a pension company goes one step further. Such pension buyouts are already widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries and are an established instrument for reducing the risks associated with pension obligations. We are very pleased to be able to offer companies in Germany such an economically attractive option together with DBR Holding.”
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