Bermuda Short-Sellers

By Kerry Pechter
Short-sellers, including hedge funds, sense that the bespoke loans that asset managers have sold to life insurers could fail in the next financial crisis. They may not know it, but the shorts are responding in part to the growth of what RIJ calls the 'Bermuda Triangle' strategy.

Nashville, Honky Tonks, and Private Credit

By Kerry Pechter
In April, at a conference in Nashville, I mingled with the people who turn bundles of below-investment-grade loans into stock-like or bond-like assets. They perform the valuable service of underwriting loans for credit-hungry middle-market U.S. companies. But the bundlers have certain misconceptions about the individual annuity owners and 401(k) participants from whom they plan to obtain a steady flow of loan capital.

Bulletin Board

By Editorial Staff
Knighthead, which has a Cayman Islands reinsurer, enters U.S. FIA market; Morningstar analyzes Trump’s universal plan coverage proposal; Transamerica's new RILA has an income feature; iCapital’s platform to add ‘Claude’; ShareBuilder 401k now has a Roth version for sole proprietors.

ChatGPT on ‘Dispersion’ and ‘Beta’ in Private Credit

By Kerry Pechter
I recently asked ChatGPT to help translate some of the private credit patois that I heard at recent conferences. People were talking about 'dispersion.' And they were saying, 'Private credit is not a beta trade any more.' Here's what ChatGPT told me.

Former American Equity CEO partners with Agam Capital

By Editorial Staff
A new RIA formed by Anant Bhalla (right), the CEO of American Equity Investment Life from 2020 to 2024, is partnering with Agam Capital, a global asset manager that recently established a reinsurer in Bermuda. All the makings of a Bermuda Triangle deal-maker seem present.

COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

April 2026

CITs: Private Credit’s Pathway into 401(k) Plans

By Kerry Pechter
'Everybody—all the asset managers—are trying to pick CIT dance partners so that they can have product in 401(k) plans,' said Chris Randall at SEI Trust Company. CITs—less regulated, cheaper, and more...
March 2026

Australia’s ‘Super’ Gets a Presidential Shout-Out

By Kerry Pechter
Australia's mandatory defined contribution retirement savings system is "a 'good' system that has 'worked out well' for Australia, the president said from the Roosevelt Room. Mr. Trump is flanked by House Speaker Mike Johnson...
February 2026

Kyle Busch’s Crash Course in IUL

By Kerry Pechter
An indexed universal life policy demands about as little maintenance as an eight-cylinder, 750-horsepower, 200-mph NASCAR stock car. And in the hands of an unskilled, or untrustworthy driver, or pit crew, such a policy...