InsuranceAUM.com - Upcoming Events + 16 New Articles!

Q1 Asset Allocation Viewpoints Webinar: Views From David Giroux on Market Shifts

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 |?4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time???

Join special guest David Giroux, CIO of T. Rowe Price Investment Management and Sébastien Page, T. Rowe Price’s head of Global Multi-Asset and CIO; moderator Christina Noonan, multi-asset portfolio manager; for a discussion on opportunities, risks, and portfolio positioning in evolving markets.

Click HERE to register for T. Rowe Price 's webinar

On Bubble Watch

Memos from Howard Marks ?

Exactly 25 years ago today, I published the first memo that brought a response from readers (after having written for almost ten years without receiving any). The memo was called bubble.com, and the subject was the irrational behavior I thought was taking place with respect to tech, internet, and e-commerce stocks. The memo had two things going for it: it was right, and it was right fast. One of the first great investment adages I learned in the early 1970s is that “being too far ahead of your time is indistinguishable from being wrong.” In this case, however, I wasn’t too far ahead.

Click HERE to read more from Oaktree Capital Management, L.P.

Key Infrastructure Themes for the Year Ahead

2024 has seen a flurry of infrastructure investment activity. From allocating capital to megatrends like digitization to more essential infrastructure projects that focus on water and waste management, investors have shown an increased appetite for the asset class. We expect this trend to continue and would point to a few key themes which we believe make private infrastructure well-positioned for long-term success. ?

Click HERE to read more from Hamilton Lane

Fixed Income Perspectives: Themes for 1H25

As investors prepare for the effects of higher-for-longer rates and a new administration in 2025, we offer five themes we think will drive fixed income markets in the first half of the year.

Click HERE to read more from Voya Investment Management

Surge of the Secondaries: Financing Growth in an Undercapitalized Industry

With the secondary market growing in leaps and bounds, raising capital remains top of mind for managers. It also underscores the importance of being able to access alternative sources of financing—a key, and sometimes overlooked, variable in the capital overhang equation.

Click HERE to read more from Barings

Fraternal Investment Portfolios: Walking a Different Path

Executive Summary

In this issue, we examine the enterprise profile and investment characteristics of U.S. fraternal insurers, drawing comparisons with the broader U.S. life insurance industry. Despite being generally smaller in size, fraternal insurers have recorded comparable investment income (expressed as a percentage of invested assets) with the broader industry over the past four years. However, the fraternal composite’s fixed income portfolio book yield has been lower compared to the life industry, and the gap between the two groups has widened since interest rates began to rise in 2022. While the fraternal composite’s fixed income credit quality was in line with the rest of the life industry, duration and sector allocation differences may have been contributing drivers to the lag in book yields.

Click HERE to read more from New England Asset Management, Inc. (NEAM, Inc.)

Ahead of the Curve: Consensus is totally consensus—a contrarian’s strategic scenarios

Key Insights

• Tactical contrarian investing can exploit market fluctuations that run counter to consensus predictions that tend to build on themselves.
• Consensus views are for continuing U.S. exceptionalism, but active managers can apply contrarian strategies that would benefit from growth outside the U.S.
• In the contrarian scenario of U.S. inflation rebounding to troubling levels, the bond market will create a huge tightening of financial conditions.

Click HERE to read more from T. Rowe Price

Driving Change: Autonomous Vehicles Revisited

• People have dreamed of autonomous driving for a long time, but the technology was never up to the task. The capabilities are now improving rapidly and the potential impact is massive, we believe we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift.
• We revisit our autonomous driving paper from 2017, where many of our hypotheses had not yet been proven. The technology and the business models have evolved, and recent breakthroughs have validated many aspects of our original theses.?
• We discuss the large opportunity in autonomous trucking as 180 billion miles are driven each year in the U.S. alone.??? And lastly, we turn to the robotaxi race, analyzing existing players, the road ahead, as well as societal impacts including urban planning and parking spots.???

Click HERE to read more from Morgan Stanley Investment Management

CIO Roundtable: Can 2025 Live Up to the Promise?

Despite questions about the Fed, Trump policies and a shifting global order, markets appear to have embraced the pro-growth promise of deregulation and tax cuts.

Join investment leaders spanning fixed income, equity and multi-asset strategies for a lively debate on key issues facing 2025, such as...

• How might new trade and immigration policies impact U.S. growth?
• What could cause the Fed to reverse course on rate cuts?
• What's next for the AI spending wave?
• Is ANYTHING cheap right now?
• What could go wrong?

Watch Voya Investment Management 's webinar replay HERE

Portfolio Finance: Private Markets’ Next Great Asset Class?

In the latest episode of Streaming Income, Head of Portfolio Finance, Dadong Yan helps to define and de-mystify the growing opportunity in Portfolio Finance.

Watch Barings ' video HERE

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Investors are experiencing a unique inflection point within their investment portfolios where public market indices have outperformed over the past 18 months. Will this continue? The data suggests this is an unsustainable trend over the medium-to-long term and that the return outlook looks most promising for private equities over the next several years.

Click HERE to read more from Hamilton Lane

2025 Inside Real Estate Outlook: Poised for Growth

We feel that the long-awaited turning point has arrived. Discover the latest trends shaping commercial real estate markets in our Inside Real Estate 2025 outlook. This comprehensive update from the Principal Asset Management real estate investment team delves into key themes including:?

• Commercial real estate valuations are at their bottom; what can we expect in 2025?
• Outlook for private and public real estate equity and debt
• Key themes and structural trends impacting real estate
• Property sectors we believe provide the greatest opportunities over the next 12 months, and those that warrant caution?

Click HERE to read more from Principal Asset Management

The Evolution of Fund Finance

What Is Fund Finance and Why Is It In Focus?

"Fund Finance" broadly refers to financing for investment funds and asset managers

Click HERE to read more from Ares Management Corporation

Trade Winds: January 2025

December Overview

The Fed cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points as expected, bringing its benchmark range to 4.25%-4.50%. The decision was not unanimous, with the Cleveland Fed’s president voting to stay put at the previous level, and Powell commenting that it was a “closer call.” Commenting again that “labor market conditions have generally eased,” and despite being closer to their goal, inflation remains “somewhat elevated,” the committee will, as has been the case, remain “cautious,” and rely on incoming data to determine the degree and timing of future “adjustments” to its range. Indeed, the summary of economic projections showed a more hawkish tilt, with the median fed funds rate now 50 basis points higher for the next two years than the September estimates, implying two fewer cuts in each of the next two years, while the terminal rate also rose. Inflation estimates appear to show the biggest change, moving higher through 2026, while unemployment figures remained relatively stable if not slightly lower, and growth estimates showed only marginal shifts with time. Altogether, as Powell stated, the committee now finds itself ?“at or near a point at which it will be appropriate to slow the pace of further adjustments” to maintain their dual mandate.?

Click HERE to read more from New England Asset Management, Inc. (NEAM, Inc.)

2025 Real Estate Outlook

Key Points

1. Compelling investment opportunities from volatile and asynchronous macro and capital markets environment.
2. Real estate returns turn positive following two negative years, boosted by stable or lower yields and net operating income (NOI) growth.
3. Wider performance dispersion between “haves” and “have nots” as occupier and investor preferences further narrow.

Click HERE to read more from Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Insurance Outlook 2025

Key takeaways

A more challenging environment

In 2025, insurers may find it more difficult to produce 2024-type investment returns.

Fixed income positioning

While fundamentals are strong, we encourage caution on duration and spread duration.

Private market opportunities

We also see opportunities to continue building out private market portfolios, particularly in private credit and real assets categories.

Click HERE to read more from Invesco US