Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Insurers have spent a decade handing more of their portfolios to outside managers. Unaffiliated general account assets under outside management reached $5.5T globally at year-end 2025, and private fixed income inside those portfolios is up 141% since 2021 (2026 Insurance Investment Outsourcing Report, Clearwater Analytics / Institutional Investor / DCS Financial).
Many insurers now lean on one manager for a large share of their book. More than 43% of life and health insurers use a single third-party manager for at least 10% of invested assets, up from 32% in 2016 (AM Best, August 2025).
For a fundraiser, that changes who you are really pitching. If your fund is on a manager’s approved list, they are a customer. If it isn’t, they are a gatekeeper.
Below are eight platforms every insurance coverage plan should account for, followed by what the platform effect means for how you approach them.
8 Insurance Managers Every Fundraiser Should Know
1. BlackRock
BlackRock is the most-cited unaffiliated manager by U.S. insurers in every recent AM Best ranking. It has OCIO and multi-manager capabilities, which means it may bring outside funds into a client’s portfolio rather than running every sleeve itself.
Why it matters to fundraisers: Find out whether the insurer you are targeting uses BlackRock as a direct manager or as a selector of outside managers. The pitch is different in each case.
2. PIMCO
PIMCO is one of the longest-established insurance-dedicated fixed income platforms. It is particularly known for asset-based and specialty finance strategies built for insurance balance sheets.
Why it matters to fundraisers: If you run asset-based finance or specialty credit, PIMCO is both a natural channel and a direct competitor for the same insurance dollars.
3. Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Goldman Sachs Asset Management has a deep, long-standing insurance client base that spans general account fixed income through alternatives. Like BlackRock, it has OCIO and multi-manager capabilities that may bring outside funds into a client portfolio.
Its own Insurance Private Credit IV, a $559M diversified private credit fund, is among the strategies Dakota found with 10 or more insurance company LPs (Dakota analysis of Schedule BA data, year-end 2025).
Why it matters to fundraisers: Goldman’s insurance relationships run from core fixed income to alternatives, so the entry point depends on which part of the balance sheet your strategy fits.
4. Barings
Barings is owned by MassMutual and is the largest insurer-owned platform on this list. It manages $317B in insurance-specific AUM across 204 global insurance clients as of mid-2026 (Barings disclosures, June 2026).
Why it matters to fundraisers: An approved-list slot here gives indirect access to a large client base. The parent relationship with MassMutual is context you should understand before you pitch.
5. New England Asset Management (NEAM)
NEAM is Berkshire Hathaway-owned and a pure-play insurance asset manager. It typically runs a sleeve directly, as it does with fixed income, rather than selecting outside managers for that sleeve.
Why it matters to fundraisers: Confirm which parts of an insurer’s portfolio NEAM runs itself before you spend time on outreach for that strategy.
Want to see which insurers already hold strategies like yours? Book a Demo to explore the insurance dataset in Dakota Marketplace.
6. Conning Asset Management
Conning is Generali-owned and has a deep mid-market and regional insurance client base. That client mix makes it relevant to managers targeting smaller carriers, which make up most of the insurers that outsource.
Why it matters to fundraisers: Smaller and regional carriers are hard to reach one by one. Conning’s approved list is one of the routes to many of them at once.
7. Wellington Management
Wellington is a broad multi-asset platform with an expanding insurance book. Its range across asset classes means the insurance relationship can involve more than one mandate.
Why it matters to fundraisers: Because the insurance book is growing, relationships built now are earlier in the cycle than those at the longest-established platforms.
8. Ares Insurance Solutions
Ares Insurance Solutions is an alternatives-led platform with roughly $86.5B across roughly 270 insurance clients as of year-end 2025 (Ares Management disclosures).
Why it matters to fundraisers: It is the one platform here built around alternatives rather than fixed income, so it is the closest fit for private markets strategies.
The Platform Effect
The platform effect matters more than any single relationship. A manager who secures a slot on the approved list at BlackRock, Barings, Conning or NEAM gains indirect access to dozens of underlying insurance clients without calling on each one individually.
It also matters because the growth is not concentrated at the household names. Dakota’s Schedule BA analysis found that lower-middle and middle-market buyout funds such as Vance Street Capital IV, GHK Fund II, Trinity Hunt Partners Fund VII and BharCap Partners II each have 10 or more insurance company LPs. That access is often reachable only through these platforms.
The insurer’s name on the door doesn’t always tell you who decides. An insurer that has outsourced its credit portfolio may not be open to outside managers on that sleeve. One that runs alternatives in-house or works with a consultant may be open to a direct approach.
How to Approach Each Type
Unaffiliated managers (BlackRock, PIMCO, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Wellington): Start by finding out whether the platform is running the insurer’s assets directly or selecting outside managers through OCIO or multi-manager capabilities. That tells you whether your audience is the insurer or the platform’s selection team.
Insurer-owned managers (Barings, NEAM, Conning): Understand the parent relationship before you pitch, because ownership shapes which strategies get a look. Confirm which sleeves are run in-house, since NEAM typically runs fixed income itself.
Alternatives-led managers (Ares Insurance Solutions): Lead with the strategy and how it fits the insurer’s liability profile, because this platform already has alternatives expertise in-house.
On any of these, the pitch still has to explain how your fund’s duration and cash flows fit the insurer’s payment obligations. Life and annuity insurers can underwrite long-dated, illiquid strategies. Property and casualty and health insurers need ready access to cash, so address the liquidity constraint head-on.
Dakota Marketplace covers 5,900+ insurance companies, 35,200+ contacts and 188,800+ investment holdings. You can see which insurers hold which funds, which strategies already have insurance LPs, and who the contacts are at each carrier, so you can build a target list by fit, not just size.
Book a Demo to see the insurance dataset in Dakota Marketplace.
