Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor
Wooden houses

Life Health > Annuities

U.S. Life Insurers’ Mortgage Exposure Continues to Grow

By Allison Bell

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Portfolios at U.S. life insurers tilted more toward mortgage investments, and away from bonds, in 2022, according to new data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Capital Markets Bureau.

Life insurers ended the year with $5.3 trillion in cash and invested assets, up 2.9% from the total at the end of 2021.

Life insurers’ mortgage assets increased 8.5%, to $695 billion. The share of life insurers’ assets invested in mortgages increased to 13.1%, from 12.4%.

What It Means

Trends in the U.S. mortgage market could affect the strength of the insurers backing clients’ life insurance policies, disability insurance policies and annuities.

Mortgages tend to have higher yields than bonds, but they can be harder to sell, and their prices change more, according to the Capital Markets Bureau analysts.

More Numbers

Life insurers’ holdings of bonds increased 2.4%, to $3.6 trillion. The share of the portfolios invested in bonds fell in 2022, to 68.3%, from 68.6%.

Because of regulator rules, life insurers focus more on investing in bonds than on investing in stock, but they do have some stock. The value of life insurers’ investments in common stock fell 5.6%, to $211 billion.

(Image: Andrii Yalanskyi/Adobe Stock)

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.