Obvious choice for life insurers

Life insurance companies, until recently seen as a purely institutional client, are also moving into the distribution space, believes Mr Strobaek. “Insurers increasingly want to use pooled vehicles in their solutions,” he says. “They are clearly moving into the space of being buyers or distributors of mutual funds, which they want to bracket or wrap into unit-linked life insurance products.”

Again Germany should be a key area of growth for this sector, although Mr Strobaek is guarded enough not to criticise the asset allocation or investment management skills of potential clients. “I subscribe to the theory that Germany’s insurers may want to outsource more,” says Mr Strobaek, carefully choosing his words. “It is for others to judge whether they have managed money badly. They can benefit from outsourcing to diversify their investment and alpha base. They can outsource to external managers such as ourselves. There is a diversification argument here, but also a quality and resources argument.”

The conclusion is an obvious one for this type of client, he believes. If the insurers outsource to a big-brand group, they do not need to allocate huge resources to recruiting in-house investment managers.