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December 17, 2020 at 03:33 PM
Unum Group is putting responsibility for a large block of older individual disability insurance policies in the hands of Global Atlantic Financial Group Ltd.
The companies today announced an agreement that calls for a subsidiary of Global Atlantic to reinsure the individual disability insurance policies through a coinsurance arrangement.
Resources
- An SEC filing about the reinsurance deal announcement is available here.
- A deal presentation is available here.
- An article about Unum’s results for the second quarter is available here.
The policies involved are part of what Unum calls its closed individual disability insurance block. The policies are backed by about $7.1 billion in reserves.
Unum will continue to administer the individual disability insurance policies involved in the transaction, the company said.
The Deal
Unum said it will pay Global Atlantic a “ceding commission,” or fee, of about $376 million in December to reinsure about 75% of the in-force policies in the closed block.
The companies have approval from regulators to reinsure all of the policies on track to be involved in the arrangement, but Unum is seeking permission from the original writers of some policies originally written by other companies to make those policies part of the deal. Unum plans to get a reinsurance arrangement with Global Atlantic for the other policies in place by March 31. The size of the ceding commission for that part of the deal will depend on how many parties agree to have Global Atlantic reinsure their blocks of business, Unum said.
About 95% of the policyholders affected are collecting benefits from their policies, but 5% are still able-bodied and are not on claim.
Unum will buffer Global Atlantic against volatility in the performance of the “active lives” policies in the closed block for 12 years, the companies said.
Global Atlantic said it will be invested alongside any outside entities that put money in it’s Ivy co-investment vehicle.
Unum plans to keep responsibility for a block of “multi-life” individual disability insurance policies, or individual disability insurance policies sold at the worksite. Those policies are an important part of the company’s core growth strategy, it stated.
“The company will also retain certain closed block [individual disability insurance] business not reinsured as part of the transaction, as well as certain assets with yields exceeding current market levels, which will support yields for other product lines, including long-term care,” Unum said.
The Strategy
Manu Sareen, president of Global Atlantic’s Institutional business, commented that the company is pleased to be working with Unum. “This is a seasoned run-off block of business with a rich history of data and stability of cash flows that are very attractive to Global Atlantic,” he said.
Once Unum completes both parts of the reinsurance deal with Global Atlantic, Unum should be able to free about $600 million of the capital supporting the closed block of individual disability policies, it said.
Richard McKenney, Unum CEO, said that the deal will help Unum take meaningful steps toward increasing its financial flexibility and focusing on more capital-efficient businesses.
“Looking forward, we remain focused on delivering growth in our core businesses while continuing to pursue additional opportunities to optimize our capital and balance sheet for long-term shareholder value,” McKenney said.
The Companies
Unum is a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based insurer that’s been a major of individual and group disability insurance in its own right. It has also acquired other writers of disability insurance and other products over the years. Its Colonial Life unit is a large player in the worksite benefits market.
