The book
Why UK life insurers can look like the safest cash flow machines in public markets, yet trade on multiples that imply suspicion. The mechanics of annuities, pensions and Solvency II, opened up for the generalist reader.
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Aitken Advisory Limited
Plain-English analysis of the part of the market investors find hardest to value, from a qualified actuary and former Head of European Insurance at RBC Capital Markets. Thirty years spent translating the actuarial machinery of life insurance for the people who have to price it.
I am Gordon Aitken, an independent insurance equity analyst and the founder of Aitken Advisory. I qualified as an actuary and have spent more than 30 years in insurance and asset management, on both the buy side and the sell side, at BlackRock, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and RBC Capital Markets, where I was Managing Director and Head of European Insurance.
I was Investor Relations Director at Standard Life through its 2006 demutualisation, so I have sat on the company side of the table as well as the analyst's. That mix of seats is the point of the work I do now: I understand the actuarial detail, and I can explain it to the investors and boards who need to act on it.
My focus is UK and European life insurers and pension funds, with the bulk annuity market as the theme that ties the sector together. I write the newsletter Breaking Down the Insurance Black Box and am the author of the book of the same name.
Bespoke advisory work for life insurers, reinsurers, asset managers, private equity sponsors and pension funds. Independent, senior, and grounded in three decades of analysing the sector from the inside.
Reviews of the bulk annuity market, competitive positioning, and where structural growth and margin pressure are heading.
Independent views on the worth of life insurance businesses and back books, looking through to capital generation and the value of in-force business.
Assessments of Solvency II, matching adjustment and funded reinsurance change, and expert-style support where independent sector judgement is needed.
Selected recent research from Breaking Down the Insurance Black Box, free to read. The full archive is on Substack.
Private capital
Why the world's most sophisticated asset managers are buying UK annuity books, and what the public market keeps missing.
June 2026
Read the reportOwnership history
Five eras of UK life insurance ownership, told from inside the deal that taught me the lesson: professional buyers buy cashflows.
May 2026
Read the reportM&A
NatWest agreed to pay £10.75bn for L&G in 1999. The FT is asking the question again; here is how the sums work this time.
May 2026
Read the reportRegulation
Funded reinsurance sent £6.5bn of premiums offshore in 2025. Inside the PRA's CP8/26 and why it helps the listed sector.
May 2026
Read the reportStrategy
Project Ocean, the CVC and Prudential Financial consortium, and the strategic dilemma at the heart of the UK's biggest consolidator.
April 2026
Read the reportPrivate capital
Athora, Brookfield, Blackstone: what their arrival means for the listed insurers, and the hidden upside nobody prices.
April 2026
Read the reportValuation
Embedded value was the sector's DCF from 1989 until the industry abandoned it. What replaced it, and what a buyer still uses.
March 2026
Read the reportDividends
IFRS earnings do not pay dividends; subsidiary remittances do. The mechanics of dividend cover for an annuity writer.
March 2026
Read the reportAsset risk
What the data actually shows on the asset class investors fear most: ~99% investment grade, and stress-tested in public.
February 2026
Read the reportFor consulting mandates, speaking, or questions about the research, email me directly. I read everything.
Email Gordon