Who Really Owns Your Annuity Carrier? A Practical Guide for Advisors

If you sell fixed and fixed indexed annuities, you have probably noticed that clients are asking different questions than they were two years ago. The old standby was “What’s the rate?” Lately I hear a second one right behind it: “Who actually owns this company?”

That question is not random. Over the past several months, private equity ownership of life and annuity carriers, the growth of offshore reinsurance, and the rise of private credit on insurer balance sheets have moved from trade-press footnotes to mainstream financial coverage. 

What Has Changed in the Carrier Landscape

Private equity firms have been buying and building life and annuity insurers for roughly a decade. The appeal is straightforward. Annuity and life liabilities are long-dated and predictable, which suits an investor looking to earn a spread on a large pool of assets over many years.

The scale is no longer small. A Congressional Research Service report published in September 2026 estimated that PE-owned life insurers accounted for about 18% of the overall annuity market in 2024 and about one-third of the indexed annuity market. The number of PE-linked insurers reportedly grew from roughly 25 in 2017 to well over 130 by 2024. 

Ownership by itself is not a verdict. Plenty of well-run, conservatively managed carriers have private equity involvement, and plenty of traditional mutual and stock insurers have their own issues. What matters is what the carrier does with the assets backing your client’s contract.

The Three Terms Your Clients Are Starting to Hear

You do not need to become a regulator, but you should be fluent in three concepts.

Private credit and illiquid assets.

Carriers have increasingly invested in privately originated loans and structured assets in search of higher yield. These are harder to price and harder to sell quickly than public bonds. Industry reporting this year put U.S. life insurers’ holdings of private credit and other illiquid investments at roughly $800 billion, up meaningfully from the prior year. Higher yield is part of why carriers can offer attractive crediting rates, but it is also the part regulators want to understand better.

Affiliated investments.

Some insurers invest heavily in assets managed by, or originated through, their own corporate family. The CRS analysis noted that affiliated investments were about 7% of the industry’s overall portfolio, but that some PE-owned insurers ranged well above that, with figures cited between 11% and 37%. That is a concentration and conflict-of-interest question, not automatically a quality problem.

Offshore and affiliated reinsurance. 

Many U.S. carriers cede a large share of their business to reinsurers in places like Bermuda, often affiliated with the same parent. Industry data cited this year showed offshore reinsurance making up more than 60% of U.S. insurers’ reinsurance purchases in 2024, about double the 2019 share. Reinsurance itself is normal and healthy risk management. The debate is about transparency, capital treatment, and whether the reserves behind those liabilities are as strong as they look on paper.

What Regulators Are Doing Right Now

This is where the story has moved fastest in 2026. In May, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with state insurance regulators to discuss private credit exposure and offshore reinsurance, and both sides agreed to keep talking about risk-based capital, private ratings, and offshore jurisdictions. The NAIC has also said that private investments will face more detailed disclosure beginning with year-end 2026 filings, and has made asset-intensive and offshore reinsurance a priority.

One detail worth knowing: the NAIC has said it does not support a separate solvency regime just for PE-owned insurers. Its focus is on concentration, valuation, conflicts of interest, leverage, and reinsurance exposure for every carrier, regardless of who owns it. That framing is a useful one for you, too. The question for an advisor is not “Is this carrier PE-owned?” It is “Does this carrier’s balance sheet hold up under scrutiny?”



The industry’s counterpoint deserves a fair hearing. Carriers and their defenders point out that the large majority of bonds held by PE-owned insurers remain investment grade, and that regulators have not identified a wave of failures. Both things can be true: the structure can carry risks worth monitoring, and the sky can also not be falling.

A Due Diligence Checklist You Can Actually Use

When you are comparing carriers for a case, consider adding these steps to your process. None of them require a finance degree, and most of the information is available through your wholesaler or the carrier’s public filings.

• Look at financial strength ratings from more than one agency, and read the rating action commentary, not just the letter grade. Pay attention to outlook changes.

• Ask about the asset mix. What share of the general account sits in public investment-grade bonds versus private credit and other illiquid holdings? A good carrier will have a ready answer.

• Ask about reinsurance. Is a significant share of the block ceded to an affiliated or offshore reinsurer, and how is that structure supported?

• Check for concentration. A single carrier holding most of a client’s guaranteed money is a different risk than the same carrier holding a portion.

• Understand the guaranty association backstop in the client’s state. Coverage limits vary by state, so know the number before you describe it to a client.

• Document your reasoning. If you chose a carrier partly on financial strength, a short note in the file helps with suitability reviews and protects you if questions come up later.
  

How to Talk to Clients Without Scaring Them

The goal is to be the calm, informed person in the room. A few approaches have worked well for advisors I support.

Lead with what you already did.

If you screened carriers on financial strength, product fit, and company track record before recommending one, say so. Clients rarely need a lecture on reinsurance. They need to hear that someone checked.

Separate the guarantee from the headline. 

An annuity guarantee is only as strong as the issuing carrier, and that is exactly why diversifying across carriers and staying within sensible per-carrier limits is a conversation worth having, especially on larger premiums.

Be honest about uncertainty.

If a client asks whether private equity ownership makes a carrier unsafe, the accurate answer is that it depends on the carrier, and that regulators are actively scrutinizing the sector. Saying so builds more trust than a confident dismissal or a dramatic warning.

Avoid predictions. 

Do not tell a client a carrier will or will not fail. Describe what you evaluated and what you cannot know.

What to Avoid

• Do not treat ownership as a shortcut. “PE-owned equals risky” and “big name equals safe” are both lazy. Evaluate the carrier’s actual financials and practices.

• Do not chase the top crediting rate without asking why it is the top rate. A rate well above the market deserves a question about how the carrier earns it.

• Do not overstate protections. Guaranty association coverage is a backstop with limits and conditions, not a promise to make every client whole.



• Do not stay silent. Clients who learn about a carrier’s structure from a news story after the sale will remember that you never raised it.
  

Where This Is Headed

Expect more disclosure, more regulatory attention to private credit and offshore reinsurance, and more client curiosity. For advisors who do their homework, that is an opportunity. Carrier selection is one of the few places where your judgment is visible to the client, and advisors who can explain their process clearly will stand out from those who only quote rates.

That is also where a good wholesaler earns a seat at the table. If you want a side-by-side look at how carriers on your shelf compare on ratings, asset mix, and reinsurance structure before your next case, reach out. I am glad to put that together for you.

Frequently Asked Questions