Analysis

  • The continued lure of equity

    26 May 2017

    Solvency II has punished equity investment with its 39% capital charge. But the SCR restrictions are bringing out a plethora of equity structures designed to appeal to insurers with lower volatility and capital charges. Is this enough to attract new investors? Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Capturing the illiquidity premium in the alternatives universe

    19 May 2017

    Ahead of speaking at next month's Insurance Asset Risk conference in London, Invesco's head of UK insurance Ed Collinge talks to Asa Gibson about trends, changing attitudes and capturing the illiquidity premium.

  • Moving on from hedge funds: alternative risk premia

    17 May 2017

    Insurers have been looking at alternative risk premia strategies as a substitute for poorly performing hedge fund investments. The strategies offer a cheap and transparent way of getting exposure to hedge fund-like returns but there are complications. Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Emerging market debt: fundamentally attractive

    10 May 2017

    With strong and improving fundamentals underpinning emerging market debt, AllianceBernstein's Arnaud Mounier and Shamaila Khan argue that insurers should consider the asset class as a core strategic allocation, rather than an opportunistic diversifier.

  • 'Insurers need to move from climate talk to climate action'

    05 May 2017

    Axa and Vivat's investment arms recently announced coal exclusion policies, while Axa also committed to stop underwriting coal projects – could this be a model for the rest of the industry? Peter Bosshard from anti-fossil fuel NGO the Sunrise Project comments.

  • Factor investing - from idea to implementation

    03 May 2017

    Eager for better risk-adjusted returns and greater diversification, insurers are warming up to factor-based investment strategies. Invesco's Ed Collinge and Georg Elsaesser explain why the approach is proving popular with the industry.

  • French elections are "crucial" for future of Europe, says NN's CIO

    28 April 2017

    Political events emerge as number one concern for insurance investment chiefs in Goldman Sachs Asset Management's survey of insurance investors, having not been considered as a threat in 2015. Asa Gibson reports

  • Outsourced or in-house: Zurich's CIO on finding the right balance

    26 April 2017

    Urban Angehrn oversees Zurich Insurance Group's $190bn asset book. With no pure asset management business in the group, he talks to Asa Gibson about selecting managers, deciding when to manage in-house and the importance of responsible investment.

  • Climate risk: how insurers are failing to join the dots on the investment side

    12 April 2017

    The quantification of climate-related risks is strategically important for insurers in terms of underwriting and investing performance, but the industry is accused of not leveraging its underwriting expertise to benefit its asset allocation strategy. Environmental Finance's Peter Cripps reports

  • Diversified Growth Funds - manna or mania?

    07 April 2017

    Diversified growth funds promise equity-like returns with fixed income-type capital charges. It certainly looks an interesting proposition for insurers in the current low yield world. But how well do the promises stack up? Sarfraz Thind reports