Overview
The survey was designed and conducted based on the following principles
Audience
The audience is insurers who are researching insurance-focused asset managers, specifically managers who have expertise in general account asset management
Insurance General Account Assets
The Survey’s focus is on Third-Party General Account assets(3P-GA). However, Affiliated GA and Separate Account assets are included at a grand total level. Finally, and for the first time in an insurance asset management survey, data on Total Firm Assets were gathered in detail
"Directory" Approach
The Survey is not solely a traditional "League Table". While Aggregate Data Pages are all sorted in some rank order, it varies by the data being displayed. There are 10 Aggregate Data Pages, and only 2 utilize a pure 3P-GA AUM ranking
Firm Total Assets
Missing from traditional surveys is information about Total Firm Assets. Understanding what a manager runs for insurers in a given asset class is relevant, but also seeing what they manage in the same asset class in total for all clients provides useful insight into their focus/scale in the asset class
Sector Focus
Instead of collecting data on “strategies” we asked for sector-level information (e.g., skipping “core fixed income” in favor of the underlying sectors) as our audience will benefit from the additional detail
Double Counting
Managers were allowed to list assets in the detail section more than once if appropriate, i.e. double counting (or triple or more). Examples include a Large Cap Equity Passive SMA in both Large Cap and Passive, Corporate Bonds could include High Yield Corporates. High Yield could include Corporates and Other Securitized
Private Asset Classes
Insurers have long invested in core fixed income and public equities. However, in recent years insurers are increasingly venturing into private asset classes, both fixed income and equity related. Accordingly, a significant focus on private asset classes was embedded into the Survey
Asset Manager Effort
Asset managers may not be able to and/or want to provide the full level of detail requested. We did not want to exclude managers, so we offered an option to limit input to high-level data if desired (note that very few took that option).
Access
The Survey should be very accessible to insurers — no barriers for either the managers or insurers. Specifically, no charge (or advertising) for manager participation, no charges for insurers to access the data. Further, ease of access and research of data beyond a simple PDF report are faciltated by integrating the Survey digitally into our website
Definitions
General Account Assets
Are assets that "fully belong" to the insurer. Excluded are: Separate Account assets that are specifically attributable to policyholders, such as life insurance unit-linked,variable annuities, separate accounts,and institutional separate accounts (e.g. COLI/BOLI/ICOLI). Pension funds of insurers are also excluded from General Account assets
Client counts
One client equals all portfolios/strategies a manager runs for a client. Value counts represent the managers own total AUM with a client, not the total balance sheet assets of the insurer
Sector/Asset class detail
The sectors/asset classes used are standard and widely used in the asset management industry. We did not provide managers any additional definitions. Accordingly, e level of manager interpretation
ESG specific products placed with insurers
These products that are specifically designed with ESG processes and objectives, and are marketed specifically as an ESG products
Private Equity & Equity Alts
All underlying’s are included here. For example, a fixed income hedge fund would be included here
Data
The data submitted by managers is not "audited", however general reviews were performed and followed-up on. Some managers utilized estimates — primarily in the Detail section. Multi-asset strategies were broken out into underlying sectors/asset classes, often by estimate, and in some cases were included in "other". Many managers included a footnote describing such matters. Given the foregoing, insurers should not rely solely on Survey data and may chose to contact the manager for more specific information.
