Decoding the Alts' Insurance Playbook
Why this corner of the market matters now, what I’ll publish, and how you can help steer it.
If you follow APO/KKR/CG/BAM, you’ll be reading insurance footnotes for years - here’s the map.
Who this is for
Fundamental investors, curious generalists, and anyone tracking the big alternative-asset platforms (Apollo, KKR, Carlyle, Blackstone, Brookfield, etc.) who keeps hearing about insurance partnerships and wants a plain-English explainer.
Why read this
Alt managers are already public-market compounders: recurring fee engines with operating leverage, reinvestment runways (or capital return), and multiple “adjacent” growth vectors (private credit, real assets, wealth/retail). Several of the largest platforms have also tied their fortunes, in different ways, to insurance balance sheets - either by owning an insurer (e.g., Apollo/Athene; KKR/Global Atlantic) or advising one (e.g., Carlyle/Fortitude Re). Understanding those links is now table stakes for analyzing the group.
The simple thesis (and where insurance fits)
The core point: these are good businesses first; and “insurance” is a key topic to understand about them. Insurer relationships push large, long-duration, relatively sticky assets into the platforms’ credit/specialty sleeves. The fee rates can be lower, but durability and scale can raise the quality and predictability of fee-related earnings (FRE).
At the same time, insurers globally are reallocating into private credit / “private investment-grade” as regulatory and market structures evolve, with banks ceding share. That secular flow is a tailwind for scaled originators across the alt platforms, even as regulators increase scrutiny of insurers’ private-credit exposures and capital treatment.
Two models (very high level)
Own the insurer (balance-sheet model). Platforms that own an insurer (Apollo/Athene; KKR/Global Atlantic) capture spread income and fee revenue. The mix is capital-intensive but can produce durable, scaled earnings if ALM and ratings/capital are well managed.
Advise/manage under contract (capital-light model). Others provide advisory/IM services to an insurer (e.g., Carlyle/Fortitude Re), earning primarily fee income.
Why this space compounds (and how insurance can reinforce it)
Trading fee rate for durability. Long-dated liabilities can anchor multi-year fee streams and smooth earnings; lower headline bps can be outweighed by persistency and operating leverage in FRE. Carlyle’s Fortitude setup is a live case study in “profit-banded” fee durability.
Distribution for private credit. Insurers are natural homes for investment-grade private credit and asset-backed finance that large alts originate, an area expanding across insurers and wealth channels.
Platform flywheels. Owning origination, underwriting, and servicing creates internal “supply” of assets for insurers and third-party clients. Apollo and KKR both emphasize these synergies.
…and the guardrails
I’m not an insurance analyst, and I won’t pretend to assign precise probabilities to ALM or statutory capital scenarios from public filings alone. Real risks include ALM mismatches, ratings/capital pressures, and credit cycle exposure; there’s also ongoing regulatory focus on insurer allocations to private credit and on Bermuda-based asset-intensive reinsurance. I’ll stick to plain-English summaries, simple ratios, and clearly labeled questions.
What I’ll publish
Short notes on four platforms (probably CG, KKR, APO, BAM), each with:
a short explainer of their insurance setup (own vs. advise; where earnings show up),
analysis of recent key metrics
the open questions I’m still working on.
Early read on KPIs (draft, comparable on purpose)
Advisory/IM model (e.g., Carlyle–Fortitude)
Average GA assets under fee (simple average, annual).
Advisory bps on GA = advisory fees ÷ average GA assets × 10,000.
Carlyle-linked % of invested assets (disclosed items only; conservative floor).
Blended advisory+IM bps on GA (for context).
Rationale: This reveals durability (average base), actual fee economics (bps), and “how much of the GA is truly with the platform’s strategies,” not just headline AUM from an advisory contract.
Owned model (e.g., Apollo/Athene; KKR/Global Atlantic)
Net investment spread (company definition; track trend).
Retail/institutional inflows & retention (directional; durability signal).
Capital/rating cushions (very high-level; statutory/RBC or BMA disclosures).
FRE attributable to insurance AUM (to see the fee engine, not just spread).
Rationale: This captures the spread engine’s quality and the fee engine’s scale, both emphasized by Apollo/KKR in public materials.
How you can help
Point me to public documents you’ve found useful (investor days, audited financials, regulator filings, primers).
Tell me the 1–2 KPIs you’d actually monitor for each platform.
If you work or invest in the space, I am always looking for people to talk to.
Guiding questions I’ll keep working on
Which model (own vs. advise) best converts insurer balance sheets into durable, high-quality earnings without overloading risk?
What’s the fairest all-in way to compare fee-rate + spread economics across platforms?
What public signals would flag rising ALM/credit or ratings pressure early? What is the best way to assess these sorts of risks, and how knowable is it?
How big should insurance be inside a diversified alt platform?