KKR Wants Annuity Arm to Double Its Sales

KKR now owns 100% of its Global Atlantic business, and it hopes Global Atlantic will increase total annual sales to about $20 billion, from about $10 billion per year today.

Rob Lewin, KKR’s chief financial officer, talked about the company’s vision for Global Atlantic today, during a conference call with securities analysts. ”I think there’s a lot of share we can gain there,” he said.

Opportunities on his target list include selling big group annuities to pension plan sponsors that want to shed pension risk, getting products onto more distribution platforms and expanding fixed annuity marketing efforts.

“Historically, Global Atlantic hasn’t been as active in the longer-duration fixed annuity market,” he said. He expects the company to increase sales of fixed annuities with surrender charge periods of seven to 10 years.

What it means: Life insurers may face even more brutal competition for a chance to attract your clients’ safe money assets.

The backdrop: KKR held the conference call to go over earnings for the fourth quarter of 2023 with the analysts.

KKR is a New York-based asset manager that may be best known for its $11 billion of private equity investment assets, its $1.8 billion in real estate investments and its $2.2 billion in credit investments.

KKR has also owned 63% of Global Atlantic, a life and annuity business that was formed by Goldman Sachs in 2004 and converted into a stand-alone business in 2013.

KKR acquired the Global Atlantic stake previously owned by outside investors in January.