A new report from ALIRT Insurance Research traced how privately-owned insurers have reshaped the US life insurance industry since the 2008/2009 financial crisis, with asset managers, investment funds and private investor groups now central to the life and annuity business.
The report, Privately-Owned Insurers in the US Life Insurance Industry, documents a wave of insurer acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investment management agreements involving private investment firms in recent years.
ALIRT found the estimated number of privately-owned life insurers grew from just 16 in 2011 to 93 by the end of 2025. Over the same period, their share of total invested assets surged from $85 billion, or 2.5%, to nearly $1.2 trillion, or 19.8%, while direct premiums rose from $10 billion to $161 billion.
According to ALIRT, these insurers have entered the market mainly by acquiring existing companies or blocks of business, and by using reinsurance strategies, often involving foreign entities, to optimize capital and profitability.
The shift reflects opportunities to manage insurer investments, diversify income streams, acquire life insurers at favorable prices, and reinsure in-force blocks from companies looking to divest certain lines.
Privately-owned insurers have concentrated on spread-based products, particularly fixed and fixed indexed annuities, leveraging investment strategies with higher allocations to asset-backed securities and private bonds.
That approach has produced higher net investment yields than the industry average, though it comes with higher asset leverage and greater use of reinsurance. Risk-based capital ratios and profitability metrics at these insurers remain generally in line with the broader industry, ALIRT noted.
A significant part of that reinsurance activity flows through Bermuda, now the dominant hub for US life and annuity risk transfer.
AM Best reported that offshore reinsurance reserves from US life insurers topped $1.1 trillion by the end of 2024, with Bermuda capturing more than 60% of new cessions in 2023 and 2024.
Nearly 70% of those offshore reserves go to affiliated reinsurers, and firms backed by asset managers or private equity sponsors account for roughly 46% of that affiliated activity.
In May 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened state insurance regulators to discuss offshore reinsurance jurisdictions and risk-based capital treatment, while the Bermuda Monetary Authority introduced tighter disclosure and asset-modeling rules this year in response to the volume of business flowing through the jurisdiction.
Apollo-backed Athene and KKR-backed Global Atlantic are among the most prominent examples of the privately-owned model, alongside Brookfield's American National Insurance and Blackstone's Everlake.
Related-party investment levels vary widely across these groups, from roughly 12% of assets at Athene to more than 40% at some peers, based on year-end 2024 statutory filings, a spread that has itself become a point of regulatory debate over how affiliated exposure should be measured and capitalized.
Suzanne Williams, chief executive of the Bermuda International Long-Term Insurers and Reinsurers, has described the scrutiny as part of normal market development, arguing regulators are simply seeking clarity as the sector evolves and that responsibility for policyholder protection sits with the jurisdiction of the ceding company.
The trend has drawn sustained NAIC attention. The regulator first issued guidance on private equity ownership of insurers in the mid-2010s and has continued expanding its oversight since, including Actuarial Guideline 55, adopted in August 2025, which requires insurers to test the adequacy of reinsurance ceded offshore or to captives, and a revised bond definition framework giving the NAIC's Securities Valuation Office greater authority to challenge ratings assigned to complex private assets.
Those reforms have taken on new urgency this year. US life insurers now hold roughly $807 billion in private credit and illiquid investments, up from $685 billion in 2024, and NAIC president Scott White has named portfolio transparency a top regulatory priority for 2026.
Against that backdrop of scrutiny, ALIRT's report addresses a recurring industry concern directly: policyholder protections do not change with ownership, and legal claims for policy benefits remain tied to the issuing insurer rather than the parent company.
Regardless of a company's ownership structure, ultimate claims-paying ability lies with the issuing carrier.
ALIRT's report concludes that privately-owned insurers are driving growth and innovation in the sector, even as their strategies introduce new risks around investment complexity and liquidity.
Regulatory bodies continue to monitor these developments, but no major legal or regulatory changes have, so far, deterred the activity of private groups in the US life insurance market.
