In a week when Standard Life announced they were replete with funds there was more interesting news (to me at least ) from M&G which is also Prudential.

As I understand it from my friend John Quinlivan, this is a partnership with Cedar a Guernsey insurance company  associated with Kuperstein.

Kuperstein is who’ve generated the idea , Cedar where it’s executed and Kerrigan Proctor and M&G Prudential,  the power behind this proposition.

To call it “our value share BPA proposition” is pushing it a bit. That makes it sound like it’s coming into a crowd of such creations. As far as I can see there is only one value share bulk purchase proposition.

It takes me back to my youth when we had with profits annuities which like the push me pull you , pushed you towards market returns at one point and secured you from the market at another.

In this case the forward looking head is provided by M&G while the backward looking head is provided by Prudential and I suppose the genius in the middle is Kuperstein (who John Quinlivan has been explaining the model for several years!

It is good that M&G have announced this push me – pull you of a bulk purchase annuity. It gives real choice which should compete with both annuities and superfunds for business from trustees and sponsors of DB pension schemes.