Insurance assets managed by external managers rose to $5.5trn in 2025, according to research from Clearwater Analytics and DCS Financial Consulting, a 23% YOY increase worth around $1trn.
The latest figure is also a 65% increase since 2021, with the findings pointing to an outsourcing market that has become larger, more global, and materially more complex.
The 2026 Insurance Investment Outsourcing Report (IIOR) also revealed that third-party private insurance AUM has more than doubled since 2021, reaching $947bn and approaching one-third of outsourced insurance allocations alongside public assets.
Insurers have moved steadily beyond traditional private placements into middle-market lending, infrastructure debt, and structured credit, and 67% of participating managers now offer private fixed income capabilities alongside their public strategies.
Europe and the UK represent a major and expanding force in insurance outsourcing, with reported AUM growing 32% year-over-year and more than doubling since 2021, from $1trn to $2.1trn, reflecting both organic growth and broader manager participation in the IIOR. Europe and the UK now account for 38% of total outsourced insurance AUM.
On a percentage basis, APAC and offshore markets grew even faster year-over-year, each significantly outpacing North America’s still-solid 12% gain. The findings reflect an outsourcing market that is no longer centred primarily in North America. Managers are increasingly winning mandates through global scale, regional specialisation, or both.
"What the 2026 IIOR makes clear is that insurance outsourcing is the prevailing model for how insurers deploy capital globally," said Steve Doire, owner of DCS Financial Consulting and strategic adviser to Clearwater Analytics.
