As we approach the holiday season, we are continuing to see strong (and growing) demand for specialist front-office talent across a wide range of disciplines within the insurance investment space.
At Laz Partners, we have been specialists in this space for years, supporting teams at top-tier alternative managers, investment banks, global asset managers, and insurers, and we are currently working on a wide range of retained or exclusive mandates with several of our top clients.
Some of the trends we’re seeing:
• Comp is rising rapidly across multiple specialisations (see below), with some areas experiencing 50%+ increases in total comp year-on-year. Much of this is being driven by bidding wars for top talent.
• Real money shops are struggling to compete with tier-1 Alternative Managers (eg. Apollo, Blackstone, Ares), often losing talent to them or not having enough buy-in/understanding from senior leadership or strong enough platforms/investment capabilities to effectively monetize their insurance ambitions.
• Sell-side desks (structuring, advisory, solutions sales) are actively ramping up hiring for talent with insurance expertise.
• Asia is a rapidly growing focus area, with many sell-side & buy-side businesses deciding on the best strategy to take within the region.
Profiles we are interested in speaking with (London/NY/Continental Europe):
• Insurance Solutions/Advisory professionals, particularly those with SAA experience across public fixed income and private markets
• Private/Structured Credit talent with experience deploying insurance capital on behalf of European (Standard Formula) or UK (Matching Adjustment) balance sheets
• ED/MD-level Structurers with insurance balance sheet structuring expertise across macro/rates, structured finance, or private credit
• Insurance-focused Solutions Sales (sell-side) professionals, with the ability to work closely with structuring teams and traders
Any candidates with strong knowledge of multiple insurance regulatory frameworks (eg. Solvency II MA, Standard Formula, Bermuda, RBC/US) are in particularly high demand, especially for more senior positions.
If you're a candidate with front-office insurance investment expertise considering your next move, please be sure to drop me a line at [email protected] and I would be happy to connect you with our team.
