From General Accounts to Full-Stack Ownership
For decades, private markets fundraising revolved around pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds. Today, that center of gravity is shifting. Insurers, once viewed chiefly as conservative allocators, are becoming an increasingly important source of long-duration capital for private markets.
This shift is occurring through two broad approaches. In one, asset managers acquire or control insurers and integrate insurance liabilities directly into their investment models. In the other, insurers partner with asset managers, using general account capital to seed and scale investment platforms.
In this discussion, “insurers” primarily refers to life and annuity insurers that manage large general accounts, as well as reinsurance and runoff platforms that provide long-duration insurance liabilities.
Together, these approaches are reshaping how private capital is raised, structured, and distributed.
Two Ways Insurance Is Changing the Private Markets Landscape
At a high level, the distinction comes down to ownership versus partnership.
In ownership-based models, asset managers bring insurance operations in-house. Insurers become permanent, long-duration capital sources aligned with origination, asset allocation, and liability management.
In partnership-based models, insurers remain independent balance sheets. They act as anchor investors, product collaborators, and long-term capital providers without ceding control.
Both approaches enable scale, but they differ substantially in regulatory burden, capital commitment, and strategic permanence.
Ownership-Based Models: Insurance as Permanent Capital
Ownership-based models involve a deep level of integration. These models are concentrated in life and annuity insurers, reinsurance platforms, and runoff insurance businesses, where long-duration liabilities align naturally with private credit, real assets, and alternative investment strategies.
Asset managers acquire or control insurers, internalizing both assets and liabilities so insurers become long-term capital sources aligned with private credit, real assets, and alternative investment strategies.
Ownership Examples
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Insurer
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Sponsor
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Platform Focus
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Global Atlantic
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KKR
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Life insurance and annuities; private credit and alternatives
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Athene
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Apollo
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Retirement and annuity platform; credit origination
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American National Insurance
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Brookfield
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Life insurance aligned with credit, real assets, infrastructure
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Fortitude Re
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Carlyle
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Reinsurance and runoff platform
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Enstar Group
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Sixth Street
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P&C and life runoff insurance
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Source: Dakota Research; company filings.
Apollo’s relationship with Athene illustrates this approach. Athene operates as an integrated insurance platform whose liabilities support Apollo’s origination and investment activities across credit and other asset classes.
KKR’s acquisition of Global Atlantic followed a more incremental path, beginning as a strategic partnership before moving to full ownership. Brookfield’s acquisition of American National similarly aligns insurance capital with real assets and infrastructure assets.
Other firms have entered ownership-based models through runoff and reinsurance platforms, including Carlyle’s investment in Fortitude Re and Sixth Street’s ownership of Enstar. These platforms offer long-dated liabilities with reduced underwriting risk and can serve as lower-volatility entry points into insurance ownership.
Partnership Models: General Accounts as Strategic Capital
Partnership-based models involve life and annuity insurers deploying general account capital to seed and scale evergreen or semi-evergreen strategies, while asset managers provide origination, portfolio construction, and product design. These arrangements commonly take the form of evergreen funds, dedicated mandates, sidecars, or co-branded vehicles.
For insurers, this approach offers enhanced yield and diversification without the need to build large in-house private markets teams. For asset managers, insurance capital offers stability, credibility, and faster scale, particularly for strategies tailored to retirement and wealth channels.
These partnerships preserve flexibility. Capital is long-term but not captive. Economics are shared, while balance sheets remain separate.
Recent transactions illustrate how general account capital is increasingly being used to support platform development rather than serve solely as an allocation source. The distinction between ownership and partnership models is reflected clearly in the examples shared below.
Partnership Examples
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Insurers
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Sponsor
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Uses
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AIG
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CVC
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Secondaries evergreen platform; private and liquid credit SMAs
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Guardian Life
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Hamilton Lane
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Evergreen PE platform; management of existing PE portfolio
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Lincoln Financial
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Bain Capital
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Strategic asset management partnership across private markets
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Lincoln Financial
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Partners Group
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Evergreen royalty-focused private markets strategy
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New York Life
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Bow River
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Evergreen PE fund; minority stake and distribution partnership
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AIG & CVC
AIG will act as cornerstone investor in CVC’s private equity secondaries evergreen platform, committing up to $1.5 billion from its existing private equity portfolio. In parallel, AIG intends to allocate up to $2 billion to SMAs and funds managed by CVC, with an initial $1 billion deployed through 2026.
The structure provides immediate scale to CVC’s platform while helping AIG transition legacy private equity exposures and gain diversified credit access aligned with regulatory and capital objectives.
Guardian & Hamilton Lane
Guardian transferred approximately $5 billion of existing private equity assets to Hamilton Lane. In addition, Guardian committed to invest approximately $500 million annually for ten years, including $250 million in seed capital for new evergreen initiatives.
The partnership also includes equity warrants and incentive-based economics, reinforcing long-term alignment while maintaining balance sheet independence.
Lincoln & Partners Group
Lincoln Financial partnered with Partners Group to back an evergreen royalty-focused private markets strategy, expanding beyond traditional private credit allocations and increasing exposure to inflation-linked, cash-flow-oriented assets aligned with insurance liabilities.
Lincoln & Bain Capital
Lincoln Financial announced an $825 million strategic growth investment from Bain Capital, representing a 9.9% ownership stake. The firms also entered into a 10-year, non-exclusive strategic investment management relationship, with Bain becoming an asset management partner across private credit, structured assets, mortgages, and private equity.
The transaction provides Lincoln with growth capital and expanded access to private markets capabilities while strengthening its multi-manager platform.
Why Partnerships Continue to Show Up
Partnership-based models are expanding rapidly because they allow life and annuity insurers to deploy general account capital into private markets without assuming the regulatory, operational, and governance complexity of full ownership. For asset managers, these partnerships provide scalable, repeatable sources of long-duration capital while preserving flexibility. In many cases, partnership structures also serve as an entry point that can deepen over time, evolving into tighter strategic or ownership-based relationships.
The strategic appeal of the partnership-based model is clear. They require less capital, involve fewer regulatory constraints, and allow asset managers to scale strategies efficiently. They also preserve optionality, as partnerships can deepen or evolve over time without necessitating balance-sheet consolidation.
Ownership-based models, by contrast, represent a more comprehensive commitment. They place asset managers within a regulated insurance framework and require sustained capital, operational, and governance investment. As a result, only a limited number of firms are positioned to pursue full insurance ownership at scale.
The Retirement and Retail Spillover
Insurance partnerships are also becoming an important channel through which private markets strategies reach retirement plans and retail investors. Evergreen and semi-liquid structures allow institutional strategies to be adapted for defined contribution plans, target-date funds, and wealth management platforms. This is becoming a key area to watch.
Life insurance and annuity platforms increasingly act as the connective tissue between private markets and retirement distribution, particularly as defined contribution plans and wealth channels seek access to long-duration, income-oriented strategies.
Recent initiatives involving Empower, Vanguard, Voya, Blackstone, and Blue Owl point in a consistent direction. Insurers increasingly serve as the interface between private markets and broad-based distribution.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, partnership-based models are likely to continue expanding as life and annuity insurers seek to deploy general account capital into evergreen funds. These models offer speed, flexibility, and scalability, making them attractive to both insurers and asset managers.
At the same time, a smaller group of alternative asset managers will continue to pursue ownership-based insurers, integrating insurance platforms directly into their long-term investment and origination strategies. For these firms, insurance is not simply a capital source, but a permanent component of the platform.
Together, these dynamics underscore a broader shift. Insurers are no longer peripheral allocators to private markets. They are increasingly foundational to how private capital platforms are built, financed, and distributed.
About Dakota
Dakota is a financial, software, data and media company based in Philadelphia, PA. Dakota’s flagship product, Dakota Marketplace, is a database of Limited Partners (LPs), General Partners (GPs), Private Companies and Public Companies used by thousands of fundraising, deal, and investment teams worldwide to raise capital, source deals, track peers, and access comprehensive data—all in one global platform.
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