Clearwater Analytics Benefits for Private Equity-Backed Insurers

As the number of private equity-backed insurance companies has steadily increased in the past decade, so has the need for a solution that fits the specific needs of these organizations.

The growth in this area is enormous. Admitted assets owned or sponsored by private equity firms in the life and annuity industry grew 41% year over year to reach $849.6 billion in 2021, according to AM Best.

As private equity firms enter this market, they face challenges with acquiring additional assets and books of business, navigating the highly regulated insurance investment environment, and processing and managing complex investment data.

Increasingly, private equity-backed insurers are solving these challenges with Clearwater’s SaaS solution for investment accounting and reporting. About half of the industry’s private equity-backed insurance companies are on the Clearwater system, and that number is growing.

Clearwater has an extensive network of insurance clients coupled with industry expertise and a solution designed specifically for the insurance industry. Clearwater’s solution alleviates common challenges associated with managing investment data, acquiring new assets, portfolio transparency, regulatory reporting, and more.

Benefits of a Clearwater Partnership for Private Equity-Backed Insurance Firms

Consolidated Platform 

As portfolios grow and gain complexity, it’s not uncommon for insurers and asset managers to rely on multiple systems to handle different asset classes and reporting. There is also a considerable amount of manual work needed to manage investment data.

The Clearwater solution automates investment data aggregation, accounting, and reporting in a single platform with complete asset class coverage. This is crucial for firms to have a single view into their entire holdings, with daily, validated investment data. Clearwater’s reporting and portfolio management tools provide detailed views and unmatched transparency for confident decision making. In addition, Clearwater’s unapparelled and flexible reporting engine allows clients to aggregate data across entities or blocks of business allowing them to analyze portfolio results easily.

This consolidated platform has benefited clients like Venerable and enabled growth opportunities.

“As we grow, we need an investment accounting platform that’s going to grow with us. Clearwater’s been an outstanding partner,” said Kelly Hennigan, Vice President Head of Operations at Venerable

“Where in other providers, you might need multiple solutions across the asset and derivatives space, Clearwater was a single solution. They’ve taken a vested interest in solutioning around our business and supporting our needs.”

Clearwater’s automated platform also increases operational efficiency, with most clients seeing a 60% time reduction in tasks associated with data collection and over a 75% total time savings during quarter-end, allowing teams to focus more on strategic, growth-enabling work.

Comprehensive Asset Class Support 

Clearwater’s solution provides support for our clients’ entire portfolios, including alternative investments such as private placements, private credit, and CLOs. More than $1.5 trillion in alternative investment AUM is on the Clearwater platform today, representing more than 20% of total assets.

Clearwater’s integrated data management solution automatically aggregates and reconciles unstructured investment data for alternative investments to facilitate reporting and actionable insights. Clearwater has led the way with alternative asset servicing, and we continue to build more advanced capabilities as the market changes.

Acquisition Ease 

Acquisitions require merging multiple accounting books contained within disparate accounting systems, all with a tight timeline to meet the first month-end filing deadline. Clearwater’s ability to ingest data from virtually any data source allows additional assets to quickly be loaded into the system by establishing a daily data feed from sources such as custodians, trading platforms, and other third-party data. This facilitates acquisitions as there is no need to change custodians, because Clearwater has over 2,800 existing total feeds, making the aggregation of newly acquired assets with existing ones a simpler task.

Clearwater’s network of hundreds of insurance clients increases the likelihood that newly acquired assets are already on the system, further easing the acquisition process and opening the door to build on an established Clearwater partnership.

Insurance Industry Expertise  

Insurance investing is highly regulated, and those regulations frequently change. Global firms must also consider multiple regulatory regimes and how that impacts their period-end filing.

Understanding current regulatory reporting requirements, staying ahead of changes, and ensuring compliance requires time and expertise. Clearwater makes this process easier with automated regulatory reports and a team of experts that stays on top of updates. From the NAIC to IFRS 9, Solvency II, Bermuda Monetary Authority, and more, Clearwater’s solution is continually updated to adhere to the latest guidance and best practices.

Advanced Data Warehousing and Automated Data Management 

As portfolios grow more complex, so do the investment data management requirements. This leads some firms to maintain costly data warehouses and to feel like they’ve unwillingly gone into the data management business instead.

Clearwater’s solution takes the burden of investment data management off our clients’ hands, providing automated data aggregation and advanced data warehousing that gives clients complete control of their data. Clearwater’s capabilities provide enhanced data quality, integration with other systems, and data that’s ready to report on daily.

Talk to an Expert and Learn More

To learn more about Clearwater’s comprehensive investment accounting and reporting solution for private equity-backed insurance companies, schedule a meeting with one of our experts today. We’ll provide a demo of the solution tailored to your specific needs.