Conning ConnText Podcast: Insurers Optimistic About Investment Markets and Adding Risk, Continue Search for Best Investment Practices
January 30, 2024
“Insurers are still looking to make portfolios work harder to drive overall performance”
HARTFORD, CT – January 30, 2024 —Leading global investment management firm Conning has posted its latest Conning ConnText quarterly podcast, which discusses the findings of Conning’s recently published survey of U.S. insurers and examines their optimism regarding investment markets and willingness to take on additional investment risk.
Rich Sega, Conning’s Global Chief Investment Strategist and host of the podcast, said it may be a new year but it looks much like the last one: concerns facing investment markets at the beginning of 2023 remain “and some have gotten worse.”
“Add to that the high tensions and soaring rhetoric of an election year, not just for the USA but for nearly half the globe,” Sega said. “Getting the outlook right won’t be any easier than it was last January.”
However, insurers remain generally optimistic about investment markets, according to the survey findings. Sega’s guest, Matt Reilly, head of Conning’s Insurance Solutions group, discussed what the survey further revealed about insurer attitudes as 2024 unfolds.
Insurers are becoming more open to adding private equity and credit as well as real assets to their portfolios to help boost yields and returns. However, the rising interest rates of the past year have helped make more traditional insurance investments, such as investment-grade credit, more appealing again.
“Insurers are looking for access to unique strategies tailored for their needs and unique analytical capabilities,” Reilly said. Overall, insurers “are still looking to make their portfolios work harder for them and trying to use that to drive more of their overall performance.”
To access the podcast and subscribe to the Conning ConnText podcast, click here.
ABOUT CONNING
Conning (www.conning.com) is a leading investment management firm with more than $214 billion in global assets under management as of December 31, 2023.* With a long history of serving the insurance industry, Conning supports institutional investors, including insurers and pension plans, with investment solutions, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founded in 1912, Conning has investment centers in Asia, Europe and North America.
* As of December 31, 2023, represents the combined global assets under management for the affiliated firms under Conning Holdings Limited (CHL) and Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co., Ltd. (SITE). Cathay SITE is a separate entity under Cathay Financial Holding Co., Ltd which is the ultimate controlling parent of all Conning entities.
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Media Contacts
Myra Lee
Conning
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myra.lee@Conning.com