The insurance industry has seen a lot of changes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of those changes may become permanent. Traditional investments have experienced a prolonged decline in returns, driving insurers to diversify their portfolios into alternative assets, which has increased both risk and complexity. SS&C recently conducted a survey to assess the state of investment operations among leading North American insurers to determine their plans and ability to adapt to new challenges.

In the current landscape, asset managers must differentiate their offering or risk losing sales, market share or product placement. Whether it be new product structures or investment strategies, firms continuously innovate from a product development perspective to discover, demonstrate and defend their differentiators, whether those differentiators are performance, price, process or personalization.