STEPHANIE PLATENKAMP, April 30 2024 Plan sponsors have found it increasingly difficult to predict and manage the cost of their defined benefit pension plans (“DB plans”) due to fluc­tuating interest rates, investment returns, increased costs, and participant longevity. As a result, pension de-risking has become a common way for plan sponsors to manage risk and control costs associated with their DB plans. Pension de-risking transactions take several forms, including paying lump sums to participants in a limited window and restructuring the underlying plan investments to reduce risk. Another strategy for de-risking, which has become increasingly popular, involves transferring plan liabilities to an insurance company. In these transactions, plan sponsors purchase annuity contracts from third-party insurers who then assume responsibility for future benefit payments to participants and beneficiaries covered by the transaction. We refer to these transactions as pension risk transfers.  Three class action complaints filed in March reveal that the