One might not think of equities as what insurers 'do', but in Europe they have increasingly adopted them.

Shareholdings held directly in the general account only contracted In five of 20 quarterly readings that EIOPA took since Q4 2017.

By Q3 2022 direct and fund-based investments were one fifth of the EEA general account, and 42% of €1.9trn assets of unit-linked platforms.

Managers, such as Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), Insurance Asset Risk's equities manager of 2022, are clearly in demand.

The key to success RLAM says is an "ability to ignore the noise, embrace technology and be nimble in our decision making, all the while ensuring a truly global perspective".

Its Global Equity Select strategy with a bottom-up stock-picking process has beaten the MSCI World (Net) index during 2022 and over three years, gross, to last November, and in 17 of 20 calendar years since inception.

"We have over 21 years' experience working as a team on combining our process, technology and human capital and can back up theoretical advantage with tangible evidence of our high conviction strategy," RLAM notes.