The latest episode of the The Money Maze Podcast with Simon Brewer and Huw van Steenis (Oliver Wyman) is a must-listen for anyone thinking about the future of capital. Combined with Oliver Wyman’s report “Private Credit Is Reshaping Wealth Portfolios”, the scale of insurance’s role in private credit is striking.
🎧 Listen here: Money Maze Podcast: https://lnkd.in/efwjVmGj

Key Insights:

  • Insurers are now the backbone: Around 43% of all private credit assets come from insurance companies (up from ~32% just three years ago). In fact, nearly two-thirds of all new inflows to private credit over that period were insurance-led.
  • Wealth inflows are accelerating: At leading firms, wealth clients already account for ~12% of private credit assets and are growing 4x faster than institutional allocations.
  • Evergreen funds are really ‘here’: Interval structures are growing at an annualised 60–70% pace in 2025, making private credit more accessible to affluent investors.
  • Market potential is significant: Wealth allocations could rise from today’s $325–400 billion to as much as $800 billion–$1.5 trillion by 2029.

Why insurers matter: Their long-term horizons (8–15 years) and preference for investment-grade assets have structurally lowered the cost of capital in private credit, broadening its reach to infrastructure, technology, and complex financing needs.

Risks, and Why They’re Manageable:

As noted during the post: “The worst loans are made during the best of times.” Discipline matters.

Risks exist around asset–liability mismatches, valuation practices, and vintages when spreads compress.

But Huw sees current systemic risks as low: insurers’ involvement means less leverage, longer duration, and less interconnectedness than bank-led lending.

Why This Matters for Boards and CFOs:

Private credit isn’t risk-free, but with insurers as the anchor, it’s no longer a niche or speculative market.

This is about balance sheet resilience, not just yield.

Governance, diversification, and risk transfer remain key to harnessing the opportunity responsibly.

📖 Read here: Oliver Wyman – Private Credit Is Reshaping Wealth Portfolios: https://lnkd.in/eZBGEBhy

🎧 Listen here: Money Maze Podcast: https://lnkd.in/efwjVmGj
Thank you to Simon Brewer, his co-founder, Will Campion and the Money Maze team for world-class analyses that helps the industry separate hype from substance.

How is your board integrating insurance-backed private credit into its long-term capital strategy?

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