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Some regulators, rating analysts and advisors have wondered if the "alternative asset managers" moving into the life insurance and annuity sector know what they're doing.
Marc Rowan, the co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, questions whether all of the executives at competing life and annuity issuers are investing in assets that can support the benefits they're offering their customers.
"Most of the companies competing in this industry, including the established players, with very few exceptions, do not have origination of appropriate assets," Rowan told securities analysts today, during a conference call Apollo held to go over results for the first quarter with the analysts. "The only way return can be achieved is by giving away asset-management fees and by moving the business offshore to the Cayman Islands, to places like that, that do not require capital."
When other annuity issuers have trouble getting strong investment yields, "this is not a recipe for success," Rowan said. "Ultimately, I believe that will end badly. Hopefully not badly for the industry. And I do not believe that many of these firms will hit escape velocity, because they will ultimately need to come back for more capital. Athene is a really tough competitor."
What it means: Advisors who agree with Rowan may want to take a more cautious approach to allocating clients' assets and evaluating annuity issuers.
The backdrop: Apollo is the parent of Athene Holding. Athene's life insurance business ranked first in the U.S. individual annuity market during the first three quarters of 2025, with about $27 billion in new contract sales, according to LIMRA.
Apollo helped build the modern private credit market.
Critics object to life insurers' increasing reliance on private credit assets. Defenders say the private asset markets are now bigger and more diverse than the public asset markets.
The earnings: Apollo reported $1.2 billion in net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 on $9.9 billion in revenue and $387 billion in gross invested assets, compared with $1.7 billion in net income on $5.3 billion in revenue and $$327 billion in gross invested assets for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Total assets under management increased to $938 billion, from $751 billion.
Total retail inflows for all of 2025 fell to $34 billion, at Athene, from $36 billion in 2024, but total Athene inflows increased to $82 billion, from $71 billion, because of strong sales of institutional arrangements, such as funding agreements and flow reinsurance.
When Athene writes flow reinsurance, it helps share the risk when another insurer writes new life insurance policies or annuities.
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