The Lincoln Electric Company, a subsidiary of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc., has become the latest in a long line of companies to derisk its pension plan by means of a group annuity.

So prevalent has the trend of derisking become that not only will nearly half of defined benefit plan sponsors consider some form of lump-sum payouts in the next two years, according to the Mercer-CFO Research 2015 Risk Survey, but the trend has caught the eye of the International Monetary Fund, which is concerned over the viability of the insurance companies that are assuming sponsors’ obligations.

In addition, at least in Connecticut, there’s been a legislative move to protect derisked benefits from creditors—protection that can get lost when a company offloads its obligations onto a third party.