The Real Eisman Playbook The Next Financial Crisis? Private Equity, Private Credit & Life Insurance | The Real Eisman Playbook Ep 48
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Mar 2, 2026 
Tom Gober, a forensic accountant and former state insurance examiner with decades of experience, explains how private equity firms have reshaped life insurers. He discusses offshore captives, ceded liabilities, opaque reinsurance practices, weakened oversight, and the risks hidden in ratings and affiliated investments. Short, sharp, and unsettling take on where policyholder money really ends up.
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Private Equity Transformed Life Insurance
- The life and annuity industry shifted from conservative mutuals to risk-taking private ownership, increasing long-term promise exposure.
- Tom Gober explains private equity ownership incentivized higher returns, changing investments and risk profiles since demutualization.
Captives Hide Massive Leverage
- Captive reinsurance lets insurers cede liabilities to affiliated SPVs while underfunding assets, hiding leverage.
- Gober found examples where $5B of liabilities were backed by only $2B in assets in secret captives.
Affiliated Paper Creates Conflict And Concentration
- Private equity owners route affiliated private credit into their insurers, creating conflicts and concentration.
- Apollo's Athene buys large amounts of Apollo-originated private credit, raising concentration and liquidity mismatch concerns.