Insurance executive Anant Bhalla (pictured above) has launched 1823 Partners, a private assets investment firm designed to give life insurers more control over investment returns tied to policyholder premiums.
The move reflects growing concern among some insurance leaders that private equity firms managing insurance assets have captured a disproportionate share of value, reducing long-term benefits for insurers themselves.
Bhalla, who previously led American Equity Life Insurance (AEL), said the traditional life insurance model has shifted in recent years as private capital groups use insurance premiums as a low-cost funding source for private credit investments. These structures often deliver high returns for asset managers, but insurers have increasingly faced compressed margins and limited influence over portfolio outcomes.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Bhalla credited firms such as Apollo, Blackstone and KKR for creating long-dated private assets that align with insurance liabilities. However, he raised concerns that some public asset managers, particularly those past the founder stage, are prioritizing fee generation and asset growth over insurer returns.
“To me, the curator of alpha for an insurance company does not exist,” Bhalla said, citing low net returns after accounting for fees and risk.
Bhalla’s new firm, 1823 Partners, is structured to address those issues. Backed by JAB, 1823 aims to return more value directly to insurers by altering the asset management fee model, according to the report.
The firm plans to avoid traditional management fees and instead receive compensation only when returns exceed a 6% performance threshold. It will invest across both credit and equity markets, with a focus on assets that match the long-term obligations of life insurers.
The launch comes amid a broader industry trend where life insurers increasingly rely on third-party asset managers to handle their portfolios, particularly in the private credit space. Bhalla argued that while this offers access to specialized expertise, it often comes at the cost of value extraction from the insurer’s core business.
“Many insurance firms have blown their futures. How can they monetise?” he said.
Meanwhile, traditional life insurers trying to replicate private equity-style investment platforms internally face structural challenges, Bhalla noted, especially in attracting talent. “If you own a large insurance company and you want to attract talent, you can’t put them in a traditional insurance company model. They want to work at an investment firm. It’s a talent business,” he said.
1823 is expected to initially manage several billion dollars in assets from JAB and will take over investments from Prosperity Life, a US annuity provider JAB is acquiring for $3 billion. The firm’s leadership includes Bhalla, JAB executives Joachim Creus and Frank Engelen, and a team drawn from former AEL staff and financial firms including Cerberus Capital and Citigroup.
