Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris LeRoy and Alex deMarco break down Dakota’s latest report on the US insurance channel, a $9.6 trillion pool of admitted assets that keeps growing while its dynamics shift beneath the surface. Using Dakota Marketplace data on nearly 6,000 insurers, 35,000+ contacts, and more than 188,000 investment holdings, they show what insurers own, why, and how fundraisers can approach them.
The central lesson is to start with liabilities, not logos. Life and annuity insurers hold roughly 64% of channel assets but only about 20% of the companies. Their obligations run 10 to 30-plus years, which makes them the most tolerant of illiquidity and the most receptive to long-dated private credit and infrastructure debt. Property and casualty insurers hold about 32% of assets, with claims running two to four years, so they need real liquidity. Health insurers, at roughly $377 billion, pay claims in 30 to 90 days and are the most overlooked segment. Because general account assets sit on the insurer’s own balance sheet, managers should be ready to explain how their fund’s duration and cash flows fit the insurer’s payment obligations.
The portfolios reflect those differences. Bonds total $5.7 trillion, and for the first time they sit just under 60% of assets, down from about 70% in 2010. Life insurers put nearly 80% of their books into bonds and mortgage loans, while property and casualty insurers hold 32.5% in common stock, more than eight times the life allocation. Health insurers keep 21% in cash and short-term investments. The one area of agreement is Schedule BA, where all three segments hold between 6% and 8.5%. The book is also more private than it looks, since many bonds are private placements and most mortgage loans are directly originated. Part of Schedule BA’s recent growth is also a regulatory artifact of the NAIC’s new bond definition.
Schedule BA totals about $638 billion, up roughly 10% year over year, with private equity near 35%, hedge funds near 21%, and real estate near 14%. Alex expected the biggest flagship funds to dominate insurer commitments. The data showed otherwise: middle-market buyout funds between roughly $650 million and $1.3 billion each have more than 10 insurance LPs. Middle and lower middle market managers shouldn’t write off this channel. Private credit is the hardest piece to size because much of it sits in Schedule D, but it may be the biggest opportunity.
The channel is also in motion. Private equity-driven M&A includes Equitable’s all-stock deal for Corebridge ($22 billion combined) and Nippon Life’s $8.2 billion purchase of Resolution Life. Partnership models are more relevant for fundraisers: Bain Capital took a stake of just under 10% in Lincoln Financial and a 10-year relationship, with Lincoln committing $1.4 billion to an evergreen private credit fund. TPG and Jackson Financial, Apollo and Athene, and Warburg Pincus and Prudential follow similar playbooks. Insurers also outsource heavily, with $5.5 trillion of unaffiliated general account assets across 96 managers. Some of those managers, like BlackRock, PIMCO, and Ares, are potential competitors rather than allocators.
For fundraisers, the path is to understand the insurer’s needs, then map who actually manages and recommends. Dakota Marketplace supports that, with filters by insurer type, investment contacts, tagged consultants, and holdings, also available through Dakota’s MCP connectors.
Listen: Youtube | Spotify
Post Call Notes
