Private assets have become ordinary insurance assets

Private markets are still routinely described as an “alternative” allocation. For many large European insurers, the description is becoming increasingly misleading.

Infrastructure debt, private corporate credit, private equity and other illiquid investments are now embedded in strategic portfolios assembled over many years.

The shift began well before the current enthusiasm for private markets. Long-dated liabilities made insurers natural investors in assets offering an illiquidity premium, while the prolonged period of exceptionally low bond yields strengthened the incentive.

Higher rates might have been expected to reverse the trend. Public fixed income now offers yields that would have appeared extraordinary only a few years ago.

Yet private portfolios are not tactical positions. They mature slowly, require specialist governance and are often constructed around long-term liability needs. Once established, an infrastructure or private-credit programme is unlikely to disappear simply because government bond yields rise.

The more revealing divide is now between insurers.

Some have built substantial internal capabilities and diversified private portfolios. Others remain overwhelmingly invested in traditional liquid assets.

Private markets have entered the insurance mainstream. Participation in them remains anything but uniform.