Sovereign annuities

Sovereign annuities were introduced in 2011. A sovereign annuity is an annuity contract issued by insurance companies where the annual income payment is linked directly to payments under bonds issued by Ireland or any other EU Member State (known as reference bonds). Sovereign annuities can only be purchased by the trustees of occupational pension schemes (both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes). FAQs for trustees on sovereign annuities are available under the ‘FAQs on pensions’ section.

Insurance companies interested in offering such products must have them certified by the Pensions Authority under section 53B of the Pensions Act.

The application form for insurance companies to have their annuity products certified is available below.  The Authority register of sovereign annuity policies is also available below.