In this episode, Nick Liolis explains how Guardian reworked its investment model, moving its investment function into partnerships with HPS Investment Partners, Janus Henderson, and Hamilton Lane. Instead of simply allocating capital, the firm consolidated mandates, transferred teams, and structured those relationships to share in the upside — not just pay fees — while keeping core decisions around asset allocation, risk, and liabilities in-house.
Nick’s initial pitch, which would affect a lot of people and shake up the company’s structure, got buy-in for an unexpected reason: for years, private equity’s big, sometimes controversial, bet on insurance showed just how profitable managing these portfolios could be.
We also talk about private credit — and why some of the current anxiety around the asset class looks a little different from an insurance perspective. While risks are building in more leveraged, growth-dependent parts of the market, Liolis emphasizes that insurance portfolios remain heavily investment grade, shaped by regulation, long-dated liabilities, and a focus on predictability.
Along the way, he pushes back on some common assumptions, acknowledges real risks, and raises the psychological issue around a lack of transparency — when investors don’t have perfect information, they tend to fill in the gaps with worst-case scenarios.
The conversation also covers:
• Why lack of transparency in private markets leads investors to assume the worst — even when fundamentals haven’t changed
• Why “private” doesn’t automatically mean riskier
• How scale is shifting power toward large asset managers — and forcing insurers to rethink how they access deals and talent
At a moment when parts of credit are being tested, Liolis asks whether investors understand what they actually own, and who is really capturing the value. In doing so, he didn’t just restructure Guardian’s investment function — he blew up the traditional insurance CIO model and made sure Guardian shared in the upside from asset managers.
