A net 67 percent of insurers plan to add asset-based finance. The money behind private credit wants collateral.

What did KKR's 2026 survey of insurers find?

That insurers are not pulling back from risk, they are changing its shape. KKR's survey of about 50 U.S. insurers, with nearly $2.6 trillion of assets, finds 91 percent plan to maintain or increase credit exposure and nearly 80 percent to maintain or accelerate private capital investment.

The survey, by Henry McVey and Andrew Phillips, was published in October 2026 on data as at April 2026. It covers life and annuity, property and casualty, and other insurers.

The direction is the point. KKR reports that every major private credit category is a net add, led by asset-based finance, and that chief investment officers are rotating toward private, structured and collateral-backed investments. Cash, high yield, public equities and public investment-grade bonds are all net reductions.

Why are insurers adding credit if they think the cycle is late?

Because they are buying protection inside the credit, not leaving it. KKR says respondents broadly recognize the credit cycle is more mature and see a credit event as an important, underpriced risk, yet still plan to add, by high-grading toward structured, collateral-backed and higher-quality forms of credit.

The constraints they rank highest explain the preference. KKR lists asset-liability matching, illiquidity limits, regulatory capital, reinvestment risk and rising portfolio complexity among the leading concerns. On our reading, a loan secured on receivables, equipment or contracted cash flows answers several of those at once: it amortizes, it is easier to value, and it recovers more if something goes wrong.

What does the ranking mean for a borrower?

That the cheapest and deepest capital is moving toward loans backed by identifiable assets. Asset-based finance leads KKR's ranking at a net 67 percent, ahead of direct lending at 39, infrastructure at 33, private investment-grade credit at 28 and real estate credit at 20.

Cash-flow lending is still funded. Direct lending, the sponsor-backed term loan most mid-market buyouts use, is the second-strongest net add. On our reading, the high-grading KKR describes means the bar for that money rises with it: cleaner reporting, tighter documents and less appetite for borrowers whose only support is projected earnings.

The bond route looks thinner. High yield is a net reduction of 20 percent and public investment-grade a net reduction of 13 in the survey. On our reading, a mid-sized issuer weighing a first bond against a private loan should expect fewer insurance buyers at the bond end of that choice than a few years ago.

What should an owner or a sponsor do with this?

List the assets before the lenders do. Receivables, inventory, equipment, long-term contracts and royalties can each support a separate financing, and an asset line often sits alongside a cash-flow loan rather than replacing it. A companion article on this site sets out how an asset line is priced against a term loan.

Build the reporting a collateral lender needs: monthly borrowing-base data, aged receivables, inventory counts and clean title on equipment. On our reading, a company that can produce those quickly is the one the investors in KKR's survey are trying to reach.

If the plan relies on a cash-flow loan alone, test it against the quality bar now. A business with steady margins and modest leverage will still find direct lending money. One that needs every turn of leverage on projected earnings should expect more questions and should have its alternatives lined up before the process starts.