InsuranceAUM

Suzanne Gauron, Managing Director and Head of Capital Solutions for Growth Equity at General Atlantic, joins the InsuranceAUM Podcast to explore the role growth equity can play in institutional and insurance portfolios. She explains how growth equity differs from venture capital and traditional buyouts, focusing on profitable, rapidly growing companies with little or no leverage and returns driven primarily by business performance.

 

The conversation examines how growth equity may provide insurers with exposure to return drivers that differ from the interest rate, credit spread, and leveraged equity risks already common across general accounts. Gauron also discusses where institutions are funding growth equity allocations, including buyout, venture capital, and public equity portfolios, as well as the growing range of investment structures available through commingled funds, funds of one, secondaries, and co-investments.

 

Gauron also shares her perspective on the current private market environment, including prolonged illiquidity, pressure to generate distributions, valuation discounts, and how limited exit activity is creating new opportunities for growth equity investors. She closes the conversation with insights from her career, including the qualities she values in strong teammates and the importance of intellectual curiosity and an ownership mindset.

In this episode, Tim Warrick, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Alternative Credit at Principal Asset Management, discusses what insurance investors should know about private credit beyond the headlines. He shares Principal Asset Management’s perspective on the differences across lower, core, and upper middle market direct lending, including how leverage, covenants, liquidity, and borrower characteristics can shape risk and return.

 

The conversation also explores why portfolio construction begins before a loan is originated, how active monitoring and downside testing can support capital preservation, and where Tim sees persistent value across private credit. He also discusses diversification, the role of the illiquidity or “inefficiency” premium, and how the market may continue to evolve as more investors enter the asset class.

Avi Turetsky, Partner and Head of the Quantitative Research Group at Ares Management, and Bill Kieser, Principal and Co-Head of Research and Data Science at Ares Management, join the InsuranceAUM Podcast to explore how quantitative research is changing the way institutional investors evaluate private markets.

 

They discuss how investors can look beyond traditional measures like IRR and quartile rankings to better understand alpha, benchmarking, portfolio construction, and relative value across private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, and secondaries. The conversation also examines what Ares’ research suggests about investing during periods of volatility and the potential benefits of taking a more contrarian approach to private market allocations.

 

The discussion also looks ahead to the growing role of AI and machine learning in investment research, including how Ares is using data to identify potential credit risks and where quantitative tools may complement, rather than replace, human investment judgment.

In this episode of the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, sits down with Gavin Baiera, Senior Managing Director and Head of Performing Credit at Centerbridge, and David Marks, Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo Commercial Banking, to explore the evolution of direct lending and why relationship-based lending may offer a differentiated source of relative value.

 

Gavin and David discuss how lending to founder and family owned businesses differs from traditional sponsor backed transactions, with a focus on leverage, covenant structures, borrower behavior, and long standing banking relationships. They also explore how pairing commercial banking relationships with private credit underwriting can open access to a broader range of non sponsored opportunities, support greater diversification, and help investors evaluate risks related to liquidity, AI exposure, and shifting credit conditions.

In this episode of the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA sits down with Tom Milewski, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Management at Deerpath Capital, to discuss why active portfolio management can be just as important as underwriting in private credit. Tom explains how managers can use monthly financials, borrower-specific KPIs, dashboards, and early warning triggers to identify developing risks, learn from portfolio trends, and make more informed investment decisions.

 

They also explore where outcomes begin to diverge between private credit managers, the difference between covenant-light, covenant-loose, and meaningful covenant structures, and why reacting early to signs of stress can help preserve value. Tom also shares what insurance investors should consider when evaluating a private credit manager’s approach to portfolio oversight, including how managers apply lessons learned and adjust their strategies over the life of an investment.

In this episode of the Insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, sits down with Bixby Stewart, Head of US Investment Grade Credit Research for Invesco Fixed Income, to explore where credit investors are finding conviction amid tight spreads, strong institutional demand, and a historic wave of AI-related capital investment.

 

Bixby explains why today’s investment-grade market may deserve its historically tight valuations, highlighting stronger credit quality, attractive yields, improved liquidity, and persistent demand from insurers, pensions, and other institutional investors. He also discusses relative value across banks, technology, utilities, energy, and private credit, while examining the risks surrounding hyperscaler issuance, AI monetization, market concentration, and the need for disciplined security selection in a bond picker’s market.

In this episode of the Insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, is joined by Sidd Chakravarty, Vice President of Investments at CoAction Global, to explore the private market priorities insurance investors should be watching as they prepare for 2027. Sidd discusses the growing role of asset-based finance, opportunities across non-agency mortgages and digital infrastructure, and the many ways insurers can gain exposure to the financing needs created by artificial intelligence.

 

The conversation also examines portfolio construction in a “normal for longer” interest-rate environment, spread compression, emerging risks within private credit and the importance of understanding exactly what sits beneath each investment. Sidd shares his perspective on manager selection, insurance-specific expertise, regulatory developments and the value of peer networks as allocators navigate an increasingly complex investment landscape.

In this episode of the insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, speaks with Ross Sylvester of Napier Park Global Capital and Katie Cowan of First Eagle Investments about insurance investing in railcar leasing. They explain how the asset class works, why industrial companies lease railcars and how contractual cash flows, specialized maintenance and long-lived physical assets can create a resilient investment profile.

 

The discussion explores how railcar leasing may support stable income, inflation sensitivity, duration alignment and diversification within insurance portfolios. Ross and Katie also share their perspectives on North American supply chains, geopolitical exposure, asset-based finance and how insurers can evaluate railcar leasing alongside traditional credit and real asset allocations.

In this episode of the insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, speaks with Trevor Clark, Founder and Managing Partner of TPG Twinbrook Capital Partners, about the structural changes reshaping private credit and the enduring role of lower middle market lending. Trevor explains why private credit should not be treated as a single, uniform asset class and discusses how manager experience, direct origination, disciplined underwriting, financial covenants and active portfolio monitoring can influence investment outcomes.

 

The conversation also explores how insurance capital, BDC structures, retail redemptions, longer private equity hold periods and artificial intelligence are changing the direct lending landscape. Trevor shares why strong companies can still become vulnerable when overlevered, how lenders can use better data and monitoring to identify risks earlier, and what insurance investors should consider when evaluating both private credit managers and the structures used to access the asset class.

In this episode of the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, is joined by Maarten Offeringa of Federated Hermes to explore trade finance and the investment opportunity it creates within the real economy. Maarten explains how short-duration loans finance the production, infrastructure, and movement of physical goods through global supply chains, and why changes in global trade and bank regulation have made the asset class increasingly accessible to institutional investors.

 

The conversation examines trade finance’s potential benefits for insurance portfolios, including floating-rate income, low duration, self-amortizing structures, diversification, and relatively low correlation with traditional fixed-income markets. Maarten also discusses Federated Hermes’ bank-partnership approach to sourcing and underwriting transactions, shares real-world examples involving aircraft and essential food supplies, and explains where trade finance may fit within an insurer’s broader public and private credit allocations.