Results of our 2026 Salary Increase Pulse Survey | Tightly aligned with summer projections.
February 2026
Group Annuity Buy‑outs in Canada in 2025 – Managing Risks and Seizing Opportunities
At a glance
- After a record-setting year in 2024, the Canadian group annuity purchase market experienced a moderate slowdown in 2025. Transaction volume reached approximately $6.9B,1 a decline of nearly 40% compared with the $11B recorded last year, and roughly 10% below the average of the previous three years.
- This slowdown can be explained by the following key factors:
- Economic uncertainty and market volatility complicated the planning of certain transactions and the management of liquidity risk.
- Several organizations chose to prioritize their internal operations, given the economic and geopolitical context.
- In practice, the year unfolded in two distinct phases. Early in the year, few transactions were completed, allowing insurers to dedicate more time to each transaction and offer particularly competitive quotes to plan sponsors ready to act quickly. The competitiveness observed in the market likely contributed to many organizations choosing to move forward later in the year, resulting in a surge of transactions in the second half of the year.
- Some insurers showed increased interest in inflation‑indexed annuity transactions, which certainly heightened competition and made it possible to obtain attractive pricing conditions.
- Estimate from Normandin Beaudry