Matt Wilmington: By bringing schemes together within a pooled section, we can make the benefits of Clara’s model accessible to more members.
Clara Pensions has reached agreement with the trustee of an unnamed pension scheme to transfer its members and assets to the Clara Pension Trust.
The superfund said that, under the agreement, more than 400 members of the scheme and approximately £40m of assets will transfer to Clara.
Clara will also inject additional capital to enhance the security of members' benefits as they begin their journey towards an insured buyout. Members will continue to receive their full pension entitlements following the transfer.
The agreement represents the second transaction through Clara's small schemes offering (SSO) and follows a deal with the trustees of the £43m Videndum Defined Benefit Pension Scheme, which was announced in April.
Through the SSO, smaller schemes transfer into a pooled section of the Clara Pension Trust, allowing the costs of running the section to be shared across multiple schemes.
Clara Pensions chief transactions officer Matt Wilmington said: "Smaller schemes have historically had fewer endgame options available to them. By bringing schemes together within a pooled section, we can make the benefits of Clara's model accessible to more members while maintaining the same focus on security and a clear path to buyout."
The deal is Clara's sixth and follows its transaction with the £590m Sears Retail Pension Scheme in November 2023; its Pension Protection Fund+ deal with the £600m Debenhams Retirement Scheme in March 2024; its active sponsor transaction with the £210m Wates Pension Fund in December 2024; its "connected covenant" deal with the £55m Church Mission Society Pension Scheme last June; as well as the £43m Videndum deal in April.
Commenting on the deal, Hymans Robertson head of alternative risk transfer solutions Richard Wellard said the transaction marked another important milestone in the evolution of the superfund market.
He said: "While Clara's new small schemes section was designed to bring together several smaller schemes, this is the first time a second scheme has joined an existing section, demonstrating that the model can work in practice and giving trustees greater confidence in the process. For schemes that may previously have viewed consolidation as out of reach, it provides compelling evidence that innovative structures can make these endgame solutions commercially viable for a wider range of schemes.
"From a trustee and sponsor perspective, transactions like this can help reduce governance demands, costs and long-term pension risk, while improving the security of members' benefits through access to Clara's capital-backed bridge-to-buyout model. Just as importantly, greater consolidation creates the scale needed to deliver efficiencies that would be difficult for smaller standalone schemes to achieve on their own. As the market continues to develop, we expect more smaller schemes to explore this route as a practical endgame option that can enhance member outcomes while helping sponsors move closer to resolving their pension obligations."
