By Josh Recamara
The Canadian private lender SAF Group has partnered with a reinsurance firm to launch an insurance-backed investment vehicle, giving the firm control of roughly $2.5 billion in assets.
This structure draws on strategies used by large investment firms like Apollo Global Management and Brookfield, where insurance capital provides stable, long-term funding to support credit investments. By leveraging the balance-sheet strength of the insurance partner, SAF can offer financing with a duration and flexibility often unavailable through traditional bank lending.
SAF will invest alongside Antarctica Investment Advisors to provide loans to borrowers who typically have limited access to flexible capital. These target borrowers include evergreen private equity funds and specialty credit managers, such as mortgage investment corporations, real estate mortgage pools, and auto-loan portfolios. The insurance-backed structure allows SAF to match long-duration liabilities with corresponding assets, supporting permanent-style capital deployment and mitigating liquidity risk.
Using insurance capital in this way reflects a broader trend in alternative finance, where insurers’ large, predictable reserves are deployed to generate yield while managing risk. Insurance-backed investment vehicles can offer greater stability than other forms of private credit funding because insurers are regulated to maintain capital buffers and meet policyholder obligations. This regulatory framework adds an extra layer of security for investors while enabling the deployment of long-term capital in underserved market segments.
Observers suggest that SAF’s approach could influence the Canadian private credit landscape if other lenders adopt similar strategies. By tapping into insurance capital, SAF can support borrowers with financing tailored to the duration and structure of their business needs, while offering insurers a way to diversify assets beyond traditional fixed-income investments.
This move highlights the increasingly important role of insurance in the Canadian financial ecosystem, not only as a risk-management tool but also as a source of patient capital. Insurance-backed investment structures combine risk mitigation, regulatory oversight, and long-term funding capacity, providing both lenders and borrowers with opportunities that align with the demands of middle-market and specialty credit segments.

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