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The most-read articles in 2024 were all about the zeitgeist; this year, it was about examining the issues beneath the surface.
More than ever, long-form reporting and analyses of market insight reports made up the backbone of the top 10.
However, there were still some old faithful – in-depth interviews focusing on niche aspects in forensic detail from some of the best in the business, which were still sprinkled in the list. Our commitment to getting the industry to speak in candid terms to us remains paramount.
See below for the list and read any you may have missed.
A surprise announcement by the US Department of Energy kicked off this look around the world for what investors could learn and use to get to grips with changes to the asset class.
“The move comes as part of the Trump administration's intention to offer funding to advance and scale up mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies in the critical minerals and materials supply chains,” we said. “This would be to build up the US's semiconductor building capability.”
Ahead of the Monte Carlo Rendez-vous de Septembre (which never gets easier to spell no matter how many times you type it out in a year), the ratings agencies reissued and updated their big white papers from the previous year, including this one on the health of Europe’s big four reinsurers.
Back in March, Goldman Sachs Asset Management said the financial industry is in the middle of a massive swing to private assets that will change it for years to come.
At least that was the analysis from its annual survey into the world of insurance asset management.
A piece from Sam Downes in February broke down several of the largest areas to watch in US legislation for insurance asset managers.
In it, Downes looked at what the (then) incoming Donald Trump mark II would mean for the legislative agenda.
At the time, we said that beyond legislation, other pressing themes were likely to emerge that investment teams at insurance companies will need to adapt and react to, including the implications of a trade war and the evolution - good or bad - of digital currency and assets, and, of course, artificial intelligence.
Flourishing annuity sales, using reinsurance as a capital management strategy, and rising competition from new market entrants are continuing to drive activity.
Another pre-Monte Carlo report from August focused on how growing annuity sales and their target returns were impacting reinsurers' portfolios.
Ahead of her appearance at the Insurance Investor Live | Europe in September on the operations stream, long-time contributor Maria Long, Partner, ORC, was interviewed for her thoughts on operations and investments interconnectedness and the need for holistic decision-making processes.
“Problems typically emerge at either end of the governance spectrum, whether it is models that are too centralised, where all decisions are funnelled to the top, or those that are too fragmented, with decision-making spread thin across too many groups,” she said. “The most effective governance sits somewhere in the middle; structured, but agile.”
The ten most developed markets globally have had their previous GDP expectations revised upwards due to more positive numbers than initially expected, according to a report from Fitch Ratings in August.
It highlighted that global shifts in labour productivity and immigration are reshaping growth prospects for developed economies. This is relevant to insurers, and the long-term outlook could give ideas of which markets show economic strength or weaknesses that could benefit certain investment areas.
Our second interview with Kathleen Birrane in the past few years. Our previous one was when she was Insurance Commissioner for Maryland; now she’s in private practice at DLA Piper as an insurance regulation expert. Birrane took on the wide-ranging topics of Artificial Intelligence legislation, NAIC changes, and investment needs in the modern era.
“As investment structures become more sophisticated and complex, regulators must have the tools and skills needed to understand and accurately evaluate the risks inherent in certain investments to assess the right RBC charge for that investment,” said Birrane. “Much of that focus has been on modernising and improving methods of evaluating private credit structures such as collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), NAV loans and rated notes/feeder funds.”
A second piece from Sam Downes, who has covered events for us for several years now.
In it, she covered Karen Ward, Managing Director and EMEA Chief Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, telling delegates back in March at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) annual investment conference that governments had been so focused on being re-elected, they had neglected the bigger picture.
She added that Donald Trump’s second term as US president might prompt managers to rethink their US holdings.
During her presentation at the Edinburgh conference, Ward presented a chart with projections of government spending over the next 50 years. She said even that chart ‘grossly underestimated’ where things were going.
“It's because of our demographics. There is the ugly, inconvenient truth of what's going on behind our fiscal challenges,” she said.
It’s reading that sums up how some are challenging the status quo in investment.
A story that we found early, after a local Bermuda news outlet ignored Chariot Re’s embargo and published prematurely, found a massive response online when we posted it to our LinkedIn page.
New kid on the block, Chariot Re, has appointed Reena Pally as its Chief Investment Officer (CIO), as we reported in August.
Chariot Re is a Bermuda-based life and annuity reinsurer. It launched this year with co-sponsorship from MetLife and General Atlantic, with backing from Chubb and other investors. Chariot Re’s uses MetLife’s liability origination capabilities.
Pally was just one in a long line of new CIO appointments this year, which shows a flourishing industry with plenty of new blood coming in.
So, our most popular story of the year – and not a single mention of LA wildfires, AI, or Donald Trump.
