Insurers across Asia-Pacific expect to run portfolios with higher risk over the next two years while at the same time indicating a need for more resources in risk, compliance, and data functions, according to new research from Clearwater Analytics.
The findings, drawn from 150 interviews with senior investment executives in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore conducted in October 2025, also point to a measured increase in the use of external managers and technology solutions as insurers move further into private markets and face more complex reporting requirements.
Clearwater Analytics’ study of insurance asset management executives suggests a clear upward trend in risk-taking across regional portfolios. The research sample included leaders from life, health, and general insurers, as well as third-party managers investing on behalf of life insurance carriers, with a combined $3.82 trillion in assets under management. According to the survey, 85% of respondents expect the risk profile of their investment portfolios to rise over the next two years. This follows recent experience in which 72% said their portfolios’ risk profiles had already increased over the previous two-year period. For insurers, the shift reflects a response to yield, growth, and diversification pressures in a changing interest rate and credit environment.
When asked how the industry should manage risk, respondents identified higher levels of automation as the primary approach, ranking it ahead of more regulation or tighter capital controls. The responses indicate that technology and data are important components of how APAC insurers intend to balance investment risk-taking with regulatory and solvency constraints. “APAC insurers are embracing risk and plan to increase the risk profiles of their investments over the next two years. What’s striking is that while risk appetites are growing, executives are saying they need more resources for basic functions like regulatory compliance and risk integration. Advanced technology platforms can resolve this resource crunch by eliminating the manual, time-intensive processes that currently drain teams, freeing them to focus on strategic risk management rather than operational tasks,” said Shane Akeroyd, chief strategy officer and president of Asia-Pacific at Clearwater Analytics.
While risk tolerance is rising, the study points to gaps in the infrastructure that supports investment and balance sheet risk oversight. More than three-quarters (77%) of executives said that regulatory and compliance obligations should receive more time and resources. An even higher proportion, 86%, said cross-asset risk integration requires more attention, indicating that many insurers remain focused on improving their ability to aggregate exposures across multiple asset classes, business lines, and mandates.
A majority of respondents also called for additional focus on manual processes and legacy tools, liquidity and cash flow planning, system complexity, investment due diligence and valuation, data integration and management, and scenario analysis and stress testing. For investment, risk, and finance teams, these findings point to continuing work in consolidating data, standardising processes, and strengthening model governance.
In practice, this may translate into further deployment of platforms that bring together positions, exposures, and cash flows and support both internal governance and external reporting. As insurers expand allocations to credit, private assets, and alternative strategies, they appear to be looking for tools that provide a consistent, firm-wide view of risk and performance rather than siloed reporting by strategy or manager.
A related part of Clearwater’s research examined how APAC insurers are using external investment managers and how that mix may change. On average, respondents said they currently allocate 35% of their portfolios to third-party managers. All participants reported some level of outsourcing of general account assets, with individual firms delegating between 24% and 45% of assets.
Looking ahead over a five-year period, 67% of executives expect a larger share of assets to be managed externally. About 22% anticipate bringing more assets back in-house, while 11% foresee no material change in the current split between internal and external management. For insurers, this expected shift points to a mixed model in which internal teams retain oversight, asset allocation, and risk ownership, while external managers handle selected mandates or asset classes, particularly in private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and other less liquid sectors that require specialist market access and operational setups.
