Aon’s CEO Greg Case explained today that the scale of emerging client needs means the broker has to look beyond the traditional insurance and reinsurance market for capital, such as in the recent example of a partnership with an alternative asset manager.
Speaking during Aon’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call today, Greg Case highlighted this as one key example of the firm’s ability to deliver meaningful new capital into the market, to service its clients.
While Case did not name the alternative asset manager Aon has partnered with, presumably this is a reference to the much-discussed reinsurance partnership with Blackstone on the Lloyd’s vehicle widely said to be codenamed Cortina.
That strategy sees Aon partnering to support a share of the business it brokers in the Lloyd’s market, as we’ve said before representing another signal of capital market and asset manager appetite to gain access to broadly diversified insurance and reinsurance market returns.
Today, Case did not name the asset manager, but said this recent example “highlights our ability to broaden capital access and attract new capital pools.”
He explained, “Our partnership with a leading alternative asset manager shows how Aon combines proprietary data, analytics, and structuring expertise to deliver innovative capital solutions.
“Traditional insurance capital remains critically important, but the scale of emerging client needs increasingly requires us to connect risk with capital beyond the traditional insurance market.
“We have spoken previously about the $250 trillion of capital globally, and this is a clear, tangible example of our work to selectively bring these sources of capital to bear on behalf of clients.
“Our ability to quantify risk exposure and provide investors with the insight required to deploy capital with confidence will create additional capacity for clients and expand the universe of insurable risks.”
Case also said in response to a question that “the evolution of bringing capital into the industry is here before us because of client need. We spent a huge amount of time understanding client need and how it’s evolved and essentially structured the firm so we could respond to that.”
It’s assumed that the Blackstone partnership will officially launch for the 2027 underwriting year at this time.
It’s perhaps notable that the Aon CEO’s comments seem designed to drive home a company message that initiatives such as this respond to growing client needs, rather than simply bringing more capital into a market already in excess.
A question came in from an analyst, asking whether Aon foresees these types of initiatives (such as the Blackstone partnership in Cortina) displacing traditional carrier capacity over time.
Case replied, “I want to just start with a big emphasis here. This is not about the capital, it’s about the clients.
“If you’ve got analytics and content, and capital can see a way to come in and make a return and be protected, you’re going to attract capital… We’re talking about net creation, not a zero-sum game.
“So this is another step, by the way, not an easy one. The content and analytics required to move money, to move capital, to move someone else’s balance sheet to bet on our industry is a big deal. I mean, this is not easy to do. But what you can pull off, you know, we are creating more capacity, more ability to serve client need, and this should not be a zero-sum game. It should be opportunity to really make a difference with clients in unique ways.”
Andy Marcell, CEO of Risk and Human Capital at Aon, then explained that the company has a leading role in insurance-linked securities (ILS), such as catastrophe bonds and said that capital is now seeking to come into the reinsurance industry in a different way.
Marcell highlighted that there have been hundreds of reinsurance sidecars in the last decade, “but very few new capital balance-sheet formations in the reinsurance market.”
Adding, “So this is the way the capital is entering the business. We are partnered with that capital to solve client needs.
“Over time, we anticipate the needs of our clients and the need for risk transfer is going to increase, and the cost of that risk transfer over time will increase, and we want to expand the total addressable market. So, we need capital to come in, and so we’re excited about our position in that.
“We feel that we’re leading it, whether it’s the ReShare deals in Lloyd’s, whether it’s the sidecars, and our capital advisory team, partnering with our Aon Securities team, is really putting us in the driving seat of solving client issues.”
Earlier in the call, Aon’s CEO also highlighted the fact the company was the reinsurance placement broker for the Thailand government’s recently established natural disaster insurance offering.
Case said, “During the quarter, we were appointed as the lead broker for the reinsurance programme of a new natural disaster programme, introduced by the Thai government to reduce the protection gap for natural disasters, particularly flood, a significant peril in Thailand.
“The programme is executed by a consortium of local insurers through the Thailand General Insurance Association and provides broad risk coverage, including flood, earthquake, and windstorm, to 30 million households in Thailand, the vast majority of which currently have no insurance.
“This work and impact demonstrates the relevance and strength of risk capital, connecting insurance and reinsurance, along with the national government, to reduce the production gap in a region where natural perils have profound impact for millions of people.”
Read about Aon’s third-quarter 2026 results over at our sister publication Reinsurance News.
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