The news broke last month that the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission officials have been investigating two life insurers controlled by Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the world champion L.A. Dodgers, CEO of $362 billion asset manager Guggenheim Partners, and chair of TWG Global and Group 1001, an insurance holding company that includes Delaware Life Insurance Co.
In its first quarter statutory filing, released June 26, Delaware Life—which sold more than $10 billion worth of fixed deferred annuities in 2025, according to LIMRA—and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co. (formerly Guggenheim Life and Annuity), both units of Walter’s holding company, Group 1001 (formerly Delaware Life Holding), a unit of TWG Global, disclosed that:
In February 2026, the Company and its affiliate, Clear Spring Life and Annuity Company (CSLAC), received grand jury subpoenas in connection with an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a parallel investigation (collectively, the Investigation). The Company is cooperating with the Investigation.
The Company understands that the Investigation is focused on whether certain private credit investments introduced to the Company and CSLAC by an affiliate should have been treated as affiliated or related-party transactions. Subsequent to receiving the subpoenas, the Company initiated an internal investigation to review its affiliated and related-party disclosures.
Through the internal investigation, errors were identified relating to the identification and presentation of certain related-party investments as presented in the Company’s 2025 Annual Statement. Specifically, certain private credit investments were identified as being predominantly contingent on the performance of related parties.
Group 1001 owns both alternative asset managers that run private credit businesses and annuity-issuing life insurers whose reserves help fund the private credit businesses. Such “affiliated” investments must be reported, since investors might find them conflicted and a hidden source of concentrated risk.
According to a Bloomberg report, the DOJ and SEC subpoenas “prompted Delaware Life and Clear Spring to run their own internal reviews, which turned up what the companies described as errors in prior financial reporting. The restatement was significant: Delaware Life had previously told regulators that roughly 3% of its investments, about $1.4 billion, involved related parties connected to Walter’s other businesses. The corrected figure came in at more than $17 billion, or at least 39% of total invested assets, as of the most recent year-end. An earlier related-party total, as of December 2024, ran to more than $11 billion.”
Three ratings agencies, SPGlobal, AM Best and Fitch, subsequently downgraded the outlook for the Group1001 insurers.
Lincoln Financial announces deals with Bain Capital and Fortitude Re
Lincoln Financial’s announcements of its second quarter 2026 net income and of its deals with Bain Capital, Talcott Financial, and Fortitude Reinsurance sent the share price of Lincoln National Corp. (NYSE: LNC) up 11% last Thursday, to $46.18.
Lincoln will be getting unprofitable business off its balance sheet, investing in more profitable “spread” businesses, and hiring Bain Capital to manage its investments in alternative assets. Lincoln reported net income available to stockholders of $1.32 billion in the second quarter, up from $688 million in the same period a year earlier.
In its second quarter earnings call, Lincoln said it has entered into a $5.8 billion reinsurance transaction to cede a block of in-force guaranteed universal life policies to a subsidiary of Talcott Financial Group, according to AM Best’s BestWire. Chief Financial Officer Christopher Neczypor expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter.
The deal will further reduce Lincoln’s exposure to a capital-intensive block of business. To date, the company has reinsured approximately 60% of its total in-force GUL.
The deal will be funded with part of the $825 million that alternative investment firm Bain Capital paid last year for a 9.9% equity stake in Lincoln. For its part, Lincoln committed $1.4 billion in assets for Bain to manage. Neczypor said that amount will grow to at least $20 billion by the sixth year after the close.
The non-exclusive asset management agreement will include private and structured credit, residential mortgage loans and private equity, among other classes, he said. Proceeds from the deal will be used to fund Lincoln’s growth in spread-based businesses, Neczypor said.
On the reinsurance leg of the overall strategy, in May Fortitude Reinsurance Co. Ltd. announced a $28 billion agreement to reinsure “a significant portion” of Lincoln’s universal life insurance and fixed annuity business. Lincoln will continued to service and administer the reinsured policies.
“The deal is structured partly as coinsurance with funds withheld and partly as a modified coinsurance transaction with counterparty protections including over-collateralization and investment guidelines aligning with its risk-management framework,” Lincoln said.
The transaction will represent an “all-in” statutory capital impact of approximately $200 million and reduce Lincoln’s risk-based capital ratio by approximately 10 percentage points, it said. It will result in a $30-40 million increase in annual subsidy remittances over the medium term.
In the Talcott deal, the statutory reserves to be transferred account for about 37% of Lincoln’s remaining in-force GUL block, the company said. Lincoln will also reinsure approximately $500 million of funding agreement business with a Talcott subsidiary.
Lincoln reported total annuity sales in the second quarter of $3.5 billion, down 13% from a year earlier. Spread-based products accounting for 63% of that total, Lincoln said in an earnings announcement. The segment reported a record-high in ending account balances, net of reinsurance, of $182 billion, up nearly 9% on a yearly basis, the company said.
Underwriting entities of Lincoln National Corp. currently have Best’s Financial Strength Ratings of A (Excellent).
Venerable to manage Guardian variable annuity assets
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America has agreed to move ~$4.5bn in separate account assets in Guardian’s variable products trust to mutual funds advised by SunAmerica Asset Management, LLC (SAAM), according to SAAM’s parent, Venerable Holdings, Inc.
The deal is anticipated to close in late 2026, pending approvals. Venerable and SAAM, which Venerable acquired in 2026, manage the mutual funds underlying the variable annuity businesses of Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company and Corebridge.
An investor group led by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc., Athene Holding Ltd., Crestview Partners, and Reverence Capital Partners created Venerable in 2023.
“The included funds will become a variable insurance mutual fund trust managed by SAAM through a series of fund mergers. The parties expected the arrangement to enhance scale and growth potential while continuing the investment strategies,” according to the release.
The private company owns and manages legacy variable annuity business, including variable annuities acquired from other entities. It has operations in West Chester, PA, Des Moines, IA, Houston, TX, and New York, NY.
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