The Insurance Investment Outsourcing Report, commonly referred to as the IIOR, is an annual industry publication that analyzes how insurance companies outsource the management of their general account investment portfolios to external asset managers and investment consultants. Published by Clearwater Analytics and DCS Financial Consulting, the IIOR has served as the definitive resource for identifying insurance-focused asset managers and consultants for more than a decade.

The report covers insurance investment outsourcing trends across asset classes, geographies, and insurer segments. It profiles participating asset managers and investment consultants in detail, presenting AUM data, asset class capabilities, client profiles, and the insurance-specific services that distinguish managers serving the insurance industry from general institutional managers. Insurers use the IIOR to identify and evaluate potential external partners. Asset managers use it to benchmark themselves against peers and demonstrate their insurance expertise to prospective clients.

The IIOR has been published continuously for more than a decade and is now widely regarded as the longest-running annual report focused specifically on insurance investment outsourcing. The earliest editions captured roughly 40 participating firms at a time when external investment management for insurance general accounts was concentrated among small and mid-sized insurers and focused mostly on public fixed income. Over a decade, the IIOR has tracked the transformation of insurance investment outsourcing from a narrow practice into a broad industry segment. Aggregate reported AUM has grown approximately 400% across that period. The number of participating firms has expanded from 40 to over 100 managers and consultants in recent years. Coverage has expanded from public fixed income into private credit, private equity, real estate, alternatives, and structured credit, reflecting how dramatically the insurance asset management industry has evolved.

The IIOR is published annually, typically in the spring.  Each annual publication is accompanied by a long-term trends companion report released in the weeks following the main report, which analyzes multi-year patterns in insurance investment outsourcing, asset class allocation shifts, and the evolving manager and consultant landscape. Data collection for each edition runs through the winter, with participating asset managers and investment consultants submitting validated data through a standardized questionnaire. The annual cadence allows the IIOR to track year-over-year changes in reported AUM, manager participation, asset class growth, and emerging industry themes with consistency.

IIOR data is collected directly from participating asset managers and investment consultants through a standardized questionnaire covering insurance AUM by asset class, geographic distribution of clients, client profile data, service offerings, and insurance-specific capabilities such as ALM modeling, regulatory support, and customized reporting. Each participating firm validates its own submission before publication.

The IIOR team reviews each submission for completeness and consistency, including year-over-year reasonableness checks for repeat participants. The team also tracks structural changes across the participant base including acquisitions, mergers, departures, and new joiners to ensure year-over-year AUM comparisons reflect true industry changes rather than reporting artifacts. This direct-source methodology, combined with the meaningful time participants commit to compiling and validating their data, is what underpins the report’s credibility within the insurance investment community.

Insurers use the IIOR throughout the manager selection and portfolio management process. For initial manager identification, the report provides a comprehensive directory of asset managers with demonstrated expertise running money for insurance portfolios. Insurers filter by asset class capability, geographic reach, client profile, and insurance-specific service offerings to build shortlists for RFPs and manager searches.

For ongoing benchmarking, insurers use the IIOR to evaluate their existing manager relationships against the broader market. Comparing a current manager’s AUM growth, asset class capabilities, and service offerings against the IIOR universe helps insurers assess whether their incumbents remain competitive. The report also supports board reporting and investment committee discussions by providing market context for the insurer’s strategic decisions, particularly as insurers expand into private credit and alternatives where understanding the manager landscape is essential.