JAB Insurance has entered the UK pension risk transfer market with the acquisition of Utmost Group’s bulk purchase annuity (BPA) business Utmost Life and Pensions.

The acquisition, which was first announced in December 2025, will see Utmost Life and Pensions go to market as JAB Pensions, JAB Insurance's UK pension risk solutions platform.

Utmost Life and Pensions had more than £5bn of assets across almost 300,000 policyholders at the time of acquisition.

JAB Pensions will focus on growing in the UK BPA market and the in-house servicing of its existing policies.

Utmost Life and Pensions entered the BPA market in late 2024 and has completed 11 full buy-in transactions totalling £311m since its launch.

Andrew Stoker will continue to lead the business as chief executive officer.

Utmost said the completion of the transaction further simplified its structure and supported its focus on its core international wealth solutions businesses.

Upon completion, Utmost will repay the remainder of a £200m bank loan that was utilised for the purchase of Lombard International in December 2024.

“Today we welcome the Utmost Life and Pensions business and all its policyholders into the JAB Insurance family,” said JAB Holding senior partner & CIO and JAB Insurance executive chair, Anant Bhalla.

“Over the past 18 months, we have closed on four distinct, capability-enhancing transactions, successfully establishing the JAB Insurance platform, which now serves more than 1.5 million policyholders globally.

“We look forward to working closely with Andrew and his team to support JAB Pensions’ ongoing growth, continue servicing policyholders and pension scheme members, and provide greater choice for pension risk solutions in the UK.”

Stocker added: “Getting to know Anant and the JAB Insurance team throughout this process has reinforced my confidence in where we're headed together – their experience and genuine focus on pension scheme members and insurance policyholders came through at every stage.

“With JAB Insurance’s long-term ownership model and expertise across managing balance sheets, we now have an even stronger proposition for pension scheme trustees and their members. I'm looking forward to building something lasting together.”

---