InsuranceAUM.com

In this episode of the insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, speaks with Trevor Clark, Founder and Managing Partner of TPG Twinbrook Capital Partners, about the structural changes reshaping private credit and the enduring role of lower middle market lending. Trevor explains why private credit should not be treated as a single, uniform asset class and discusses how manager experience, direct origination, disciplined underwriting, financial covenants and active portfolio monitoring can influence investment outcomes.
 
The conversation also explores how insurance capital, BDC structures, retail redemptions, longer private equity hold periods and artificial intelligence are changing the direct lending landscape. Trevor shares why strong companies can still become vulnerable when overlevered, how lenders can use better data and monitoring to identify risks earlier, and what insurance investors should consider when evaluating both private credit managers and the structures used to access the asset class.

In this episode of the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, is joined by Maarten Offeringa of Federated Hermes to explore trade finance and the investment opportunity it creates within the real economy. Maarten explains how short-duration loans finance the production, infrastructure, and movement of physical goods through global supply chains, and why changes in global trade and bank regulation have made the asset class increasingly accessible to institutional investors.
 
The conversation examines trade finance’s potential benefits for insurance portfolios, including floating-rate income, low duration, self-amortizing structures, diversification, and relatively low correlation with traditional fixed-income markets. Maarten also discusses Federated Hermes’ bank-partnership approach to sourcing and underwriting transactions, shares real-world examples involving aircraft and essential food supplies, and explains where trade finance may fit within an insurer’s broader public and private credit allocations.

In this episode of the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, speaks with Pramila Agrawal, PhD, CFA, senior insurance portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles, about how insurers can rethink core fixed income in a changing market environment.
 
They discuss the expanding role of private credit, structured products and emerging market debt, along with the importance of liquidity, scale and consistent underwriting across public and private markets. Pramila also shares how technology is becoming more integrated into portfolio construction, risk management and customized solutions for insurance investors.

In this episode of the insuranceaum.com podcast, host Stewart Foley, CFA, is joined by Emily Wiener, Chief Investment Officer of the TIAA General Account, and Dan Close, Head of Municipals at Nuveen, to discuss the role taxable municipal bonds can play in resilient, liability-aware insurance portfolios. They examine why municipal bonds remain a vital source of infrastructure financing and how taxable munis can provide high-quality, long-duration exposure.
 
The conversation explores relative value beyond headline spreads, including credit quality, default and recovery experience, downside protection, supply dynamics, and the importance of specialized research. Emily and Dan also discuss how TIAA uses municipal bonds as portfolio ballast and why experienced market access matters in a diverse and highly specialized asset class.

Host Stewart Foley, CFA, is joined by Nick Coxon, Managing Director and Head of Americas Real Assets, and Ben Taylor, Managing Director, Private Credit, at Macquarie Asset Management. In this episode of the insuranceaum.com podcast, they discuss why infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important allocation for insurers, including the differences between infrastructure debt and equity and the role of contractual revenues, inflation linkage, hard collateral, and long-duration cash flows in liability-aware portfolios.
 
The conversation also explores the widening infrastructure funding gap, rising demand tied to digitalization, decarbonization, demographics, and power usage, and the growing role of private capital as banks retreat from longer-dated lending. Nick and Ben also highlight opportunities in infrastructure-adjacent businesses and explain how the asset class may offer yield, diversification, downside protection, and exposure to essential real assets.