Legal & General, the UK insurer, has signed one of the biggest single deals so far in the market for bulk-annuity pensions buyouts, whereby insurance companies take on companies' closed retirement funds. The £1.1bn T&N Retirement Benefits Scheme is an orphaned pension plan for the manufacturer Turner & Newall, which went bust in 2001 after controversy over asbestos poisoning. The company left behind a £400m pensions deficit, and as a result, L&G said it will not be able to pay members the full amount they were owed. But Tim Culverhouse, a managing director at consultants Alexander Forbes, which is acting as trustee to the T&N scheme, said it should be possible to "apply a small one-off uplift" to members' pensions as a result of the deal. Consultants Mercer advised on the transaction.