The insurer-specific results of the PRA Life Insurance Stress Test (LIST 2025) demonstrate a good degree of financial resilience across in-scope insurers, however, Lizzie Hawkins, insurer due diligence specialist in the Aon Risk Settlement Group, warns against drawing quick conclusions from the results.
On 24 November 2025, the PRA released results for each participating UK insurer, representing 11 of the largest UK life insurers active in the bulk purchase annuity (BPA) market.
LIST 2025 is the third time that the PRA has asked UK life insurers to participate in a stress testing exercise and the first under the new Solvency UK regulatory regime implemented in 2024.
Hawkins stressed that the nuances and limitations of the LIST exercise meant that Aon was not surprised to see some insurers seeming to fare better than others.
She said, “It is important to understand that insurers manage their capital position in the wider context of their business, including wider group support, other lines of business such as with-profits funds, and relying on management actions – which may not have been fully reflected under the parameters of LIST.
“Viewed simplistically, the apparent impact of the stresses on an insurer also depends on their starting solvency positions – which varied significantly at end 2024, from approximately 140% – 270%. Insurers starting from a higher initial position have generally seen a larger fall in solvency coverage – this is somewhat inevitable from the nature of the solvency coverage calculation.”
Hawkins noted that trustees and sponsors should treat the results as a useful additional tool for understanding the risks an insurer faces, but remember that it should only be one part of a wider insurer assessment.
Sam Matto-Willey, head of insurer due diligence in the Aon Risk Settlement Group, said the insurer-specific results also demonstrate the diversity of firms in the market, for example in relation to investment strategy. He added that this reinforces the value to trustees and sponsors of informed due diligence advice, which analyses these differences to support decision-making.
“We welcome the PRA’s decision to publish insurer-specific results for the first time. We hope that in future exercises, further topical risks will continue to be modelled with granular disclosure of the results. An example of this could be the risks to insurers around the provision to schemes of solvency-based termination rights that the PRA has drawn attention to throughout 2025,” said Matto-Willey.
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