Guernsey’s role as an international funds jurisdiction was examined at the Guernsey Funds Forum 2026, where industry participants discussed how the island is positioning itself for the next phase of global private capital growth and what this may mean for insurance and captive markets.
Held under the theme “The Next Trillion”, the event focused on Guernsey’s ambition to support the next £1 trillion in assets under administration and management. Speakers considered factors influencing the international funds landscape, including regulatory convergence, geopolitical tension, changing investor expectations and the expanding role of private capital in long-term economic activity.
The forum brought together fund managers, legal advisers, administrators, insurers, captive specialists and other market participants for a programme of keynotes, panel discussions and seminar sessions on developments in the funds industry and Guernsey’s place within it.
Chief executive of Guernsey Finance, Barnaby Molloy, opened the event by setting out recent figures for the island’s investment sector. He noted that Guernsey has passed £1 trillion in assets under management and administration across its investment industry, describing this as a significant milestone that, in his view, reflects the strength, flexibility and credibility of the jurisdiction’s offering.
Molloy said a substantial portion of this capital sits in entities ancillary to funds, such as deal-by-deal and club arrangements and specialist vehicles alongside regulated fund structures, and argued that Guernsey’s experience with such arrangements continues to differentiate it.
He also suggested that Guernsey is increasingly being used to channel capital towards areas perceived as under-served, including long-term investment, niche sectors and specialist areas such as defence, where he said access to funding has become both more constrained and more important.
For insurance professionals, that growth is viewed against Guernsey’s long-standing role as a European captive domicile, with a concentration of managers, brokers and legal advisers involved in corporate risk financing, alternative risk transfer and insurance-linked structures. The interaction between fund platforms and captives – for example through co-investment or sidecar vehicles – formed part of the broader discussion on how private capital is being deployed into risk and resilience-related projects.
John Godfrey, managing director for public affairs, policy and research at TheCityUK, addressed the contribution of international financial centres to economic growth and cross-border capital flows. He highlighted English common law and what he characterised as stable, predictable and proportionate regulation as important advantages for the wider UK financial ecosystem. Against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, he suggested that jurisdictions perceived as calm, reliable and pragmatic may hold particular appeal for investors and firms.
Godfrey described Guernsey as a location that attracts talent and business activity, and said the challenge for such centres is to combine this with what he called a nimble, forward-looking approach to industry change. He also confirmed that Guernsey Finance has joined TheCityUK’s Defence and Resilience Group, a body that brings together financial and professional services, the defence sector and policymakers to examine long-term issues affecting the UK’s economic resilience, security and defence capabilities.
The initiative is expected to create additional channels through which private capital, including funds and captives, could engage with defence-related and dual-use projects, subject to investor appetite and regulatory requirements.
The first panel, “Flexible fund structuring”, looked at how Guernsey’s fund vehicles are being used across private capital strategies. Panellists pointed to speed to market and engagement with the regulator as factors they believe influence the choice of domicile for time-sensitive transactions.
Marc Schubert, partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, told delegates that in his experience Guernsey offers long-standing expertise and a pragmatic focus. He said that in recent years primary fundraising has become more challenging and that, for single-asset deals, co-investments and other bespoke structures, deal timetables often dictate much shorter timeframes than the six to nine months traditionally associated with a fund launch. According to Schubert, in situations where managers have only a matter of weeks to establish a structure, Guernsey’s ability to move quickly can be advantageous.
For insurers and captive owners, similar structuring tools are relevant where fund and insurance arrangements are set up alongside each other, including fund-of-one structures, sidecars and vehicles accessing alternative reinsurance capacity.
The second panel, “Guernsey: the gateway to private capital”, considered Guernsey’s position within the global private capital ecosystem. Contributors said that, in their view, managers tend to favour jurisdictions they see as combining regulatory credibility with practical commercial experience, particularly as investors pay closer attention to transparency, governance and operational resilience.
Panellists also referred to the growing use of technology to manage operational complexity and data, and discussed the role of sustainability standards amid volatility in energy and resource markets.
Ruth Murray, investment director at Gresham House, told the forum that she regards Guernsey’s sustainable fund frameworks, including its green fund regime and Natural Capital Fund designation, as a point of differentiation. She said the level of scrutiny applied to these labels can be important in establishing credibility and in attracting managers who are seeking to align capital with specific environmental or natural capital objectives.
For insurers, developments in Guernsey’s sustainable fund regimes are relevant both as potential sources of long-term assets and as indicators of how environmental and nature-related considerations are being built into investment mandates.
In addition to the plenary sessions, the forum included seminars offering more detailed discussion. “From geopolitics to portfolios: investing in an era of strategic competition” examined how geopolitical trends are influencing asset allocation, including interest in defence-related opportunities and the steps involved in establishing and managing such strategies from Guernsey.
A second session, “Your first fund: why Guernsey works”, outlined the stages involved in launching a first-time fund on the island and the support available to emerging managers. These themes are also relevant to insurance groups and managing general agents considering dedicated investment or sidecar structures.
The event concluded with a keynote from Jo Salter MBE, former director of global transformative leadership at PwC and the UK’s first female fast-jet pilot. Drawing on her aviation and corporate experience, she discussed leadership, resilience and decision-making in high-pressure and uncertain environments, issues that remain in focus for both funds and insurance markets operating within a more volatile macroeconomic and regulatory backdrop.
