Download Life Risk News Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2025

The global equity release/reverse mortgage market could be worth $56bn by 2035, according to a new report from EY and industry body the European Pensions and Property Asset Release Group. Greg Winterton spoke to Joe Kelly, Partner at New View Advisors, and Ben Grainger, Partner at EY, to get their thoughts on the reality of the opportunity in the US and Europe in Significant Growth Potential in Equity Release/Reverse Mortgage Market but Change is Required to Get There. 

After approximately £48-£50bn deals were struck in the UK pension risk transfer market last year, it is still too early to tell if a breach of the £50bn barrier will happen in 2025. Anecdotal and market data indicate, nonetheless, that activity in the past six months has been significant. Mark McCord spoke to Gemma Millington, Senior Director at WTW, and Dean Wetton, Managing Director at Dean Wetton Advisory, to get their thoughts on the state of the market at the halfway point of 2025 in Insurance Capacity Boost and Growth in Small Deals Mark Busy First Half in UK Pension Risk Transfer Market. 

The life settlement cohort contains numerous features that distinguish it from the general population. Greg Winterton spoke to Liam Bodemeaid, Actuarial Consultant at Actuarial Risk Management, to learn more about the differences, and what might impact the future mortality rate of this group, in Life Settlement Population Outlook Suggests Underwriting Frameworks Will Need to Continue to Adjust. 

Mental illness, particularly when left untreated, can have profound consequences not just on quality of life, but on how long a person might be expected to live and should therefore be factored in when calculating an insured’s predicted life expectancy in the life settlement market. So says Fergus Bescoby, Head of Medical Underwriting at CG Analysts, in Mental Health Illness and Its Impact on Life Expectancy in the USA, a guest article this month. 

Fast track… sounds appealing, doesn’t it? What trustee board, overloaded with governance documents and new valuation requirements, wouldn’t be attracted to an option that promises to save time and reduces enquiries about their work? But a name can be deceptive, and hundreds of defined benefit arrangements could be about to sleepwalk into adding a material and unnecessary financial burden on their sponsoring employers. More from David Hamilton, Chief Actuary at Broadstone, in The Dangers of Defaulting to Fast Track, our second guest article this month. 

The life settlement secondary market saw reduced activity in 2024 for the first time in four years. Greg Winterton caught up with Perry Koons, Director of Capital Markets at life settlement provider Maple Life Financial, to get his thoughts on the state of the market as we enter the second half of the year in this month’s Q&A. 

At the end of June, the Continuous Mortality Investigation in the UK, which produces mortality data and analysis, issued its latest update, CMI_2024, which showed an increase in cohort life expectancies at age 65 in England and Wales. Greg Winterton spoke to Stuart McDonald, Partner at Lane Clark & Peacock, to get his thoughts in Nuanced Impact of CMI Model Change on Pension Risk Transfer Market. 

We hope you enjoy the latest issue of Life Risk News.