About Us
Syndicate Management
Investing at Lloyd's
tax-corporate-services
News
About Us
Syndicate Management
Investing at Lloyd's
tax-corporate-services
News
Lloyd’s of London and the United States have long shared a symbiotic relationship built on partnership, trust, and growth. Cuthbert Heath, one of Lloyd’s most celebrated underwriters, cemented this bond with his swift and fair response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Since then, Lloyd’s footprint in the U.S. has only deepened: today, more than half of the market’s business originates from North America, primarily the United States. Each year, Lloyd’s pays out over £12 billion in claims to American businesses and communities and remains deeply intertwined with U.S. financial markets.
Yet beyond its underwriting strength, Lloyd’s also represents an investment opportunity. Long-term performance at Lloyd’s has consistently produced double-digit returns on capital, often exceeding equity benchmarks. For U.S. institutional investors, Lloyd’s offers a logical and underutilised pathway, linking capital efficiency with global insurance diversification.
Corporate and institutional investors may already be familiar with insurance markets, namely, insurance-linked securities (ILS). With recent concerns about ILS market resilience in the face of higher frequency natural catastrophe events, investors might look for more stable alternatives. Lloyd’s presents a compelling (yet aligned) option, offering reduced catastrophe exposure than traditional ILS investments through access to a diversified portfolio, spanning specialty, property, casualty, marine, aviation, and cyber risks. This breadth enables broader geographic and risk diversification than typical ILS strategies, which is further reinforced by Lloyd’s’ robust regulatory framework.
In October, Argenta Private Capital Ltd (APCL) brought this opportunity to the forefront with an event in New York, hosted in collaboration with Lloyd’s, Eversheds Sutherland, and Stonybrook Capital.
We were delighted to welcome Marc Lipman, President of Lloyd’s Americas, who set the scene for how to invest at Lloyd’s – and how to do so from the United States.
Aside from the benefit of long-term, potential double figure returns, Lloyd’s also delivers investors access to diversified specialty insurance risks that are largely uncorrelated with traditional equity and fixed income portfolios. Licensed to write business in over 80 territories, and with reinsurance operations extending across more than 200 territories, Lloyd’s provides international scale, diversification, and resilience amid wider financial market volatility.
Its distinctive “chain of security” underpins capital protection and operational efficiency. Lloyd’s accepts a broad spectrum of eligible assets (cash, securities, and letters of credit), providing flexible capital management. This system is ultimately backed by the highly rated Central Fund, enabling underwriting capital to operate with confidence and efficiency.
Lloyd’s also offers strength in credit ratings: AM Best A+, Fitch AA-, and S&P Global AA-, facilitating both highly rated income for investors and quality business within the marketplace.
U.S. reinsurers can directly access the market by establishing an underwriting vehicle, or in Lloyd’s parlance, a Corporate Member. This effectively acts as a transformer, allowing capital to support one or more syndicates, with active or passive involvement across diverse specialty risk classes.
Advised by experts such as Argenta Private Capital or liaising with Lloyd’s authorised brokers, investors can shape their exposure, whether aligning closely with a single managing agent or diversifying across several syndicates. Corporate Members have full access to underwriting returns, flexibility in profit extraction, and can benefit their balance sheet through highly rated income.
Alternatively, investors may participate through third-party or managed structures, using vehicles owned by managing agents, or orphan trusts. At APCL’s October Summit in New York, the firm was joined by Micah Woolstenhulme, Chief Reinsurance Officer at UFG Insurance, who helped bring the investment opportunity to life.
As Micah noted, Lloyd’s offers not only a track record of mature underwriting but also a dynamic environment for returns:
Our results have been good and we see value in the long-term opportunity for reliable performance. As an insurance geek, I am excited about the unique opportunities at Lloyd’s. It’s a compelling marketplace for people in the insurance business.
Recognising the value of institutional capital, namely those investors who operate without the benefit of a reinsurance licence, Lloyd’s has developed a series of structures designed to ease investment entry and enhance efficiency. Among these, London Bridge 2 (LB2), introduced in 2022, has captured growing attention from institutional and trade investors worldwide.
LB2 offers a streamlined and flexible gateway for capital to access Lloyd’s. It combines regulated efficiency with infrastructure familiar to institutional investors. As Marc Lipman put it:
[London Bridge] gives institutional investors what they’re used to seeing: something that looks and feels like a bond or a debt instrument.
For over a century, U.S. capital and Lloyd’s underwriting have complemented one another; mutual confidence supporting mutual growth. In an era of geopolitical complexity and evolving risks, Lloyd’s offers something enduring: disciplined performance, proven diversification, and a global, well-regulated platform with multiple entry routes.
Whether you're looking for strategic underwriting exposure, passive capital deployment, or reinsurance-based returns (to borrow from Ronald Reagan), we’re Argenta Private Capital, and we’re here to help.