According to the index, the price of securing all liabilities fell by 8% in the first quarter of the year, but rose by 3% in April.
The index shows that the cost of securing a typical group of deferred member liabilities plunged by 10% in the first quarter and fell by 6% for pensioner members.
The analysis is based on the firm’s experiences of costing the liabilities of pension schemes and uses a typical age, gender and benefit profile.
Mark Wood, chief executive of Paternoster, said that wider credit spreads caused the costs of securing liabilities with an insurer to fall during the first quarter.
“This more than offsets the moves in the gilt yield curve,” he said. “But during April, buyout became more expensive due to the growing perception that liquidity was slowly returning to credit markets, and as a consequence, we saw spreads tightening.
“Clearly, the impact of market movements on the cost of securing liabilities can be significant, and trustees and their sponsoring organisations should focus on this as they manage their process of evaluating a buyout. The cost of missing the market could be considerable.”
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