More investment managers are working at the edge of innovation. Some back fast-moving sectors like crypto, AI, and space. Some run their strategies on-chain. Others build their whole business on technology. These managers are often hard to place, because a generalist carrier may price the risk cautiously or exclude it.
At Relm, we already insure many of the innovative industries these managers invest in, and we bring that understanding to investment management. Here’s how we approach them.
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Five Changes Making the Job More Complex
Across investment management, managers are taking on more decisions that could later be questioned. Our latest research looks at five changes behind that shift, from what managers invest in, to how their funds work, to how their firms make decisions.
1. Bigger bets, concentrated at the top
AI took 86% of US venture capital dollars in the first half of 2026, but only 43% of the deals (PitchBook-NVCA). AI’s share of deals has barely moved, but the deals themselves have grown far larger. When each check is that size, investors look more closely at how a company was valued and whether enough was held back for later rounds.
2. Investors are shifting money into physical infrastructure
Infrastructure fundraising rose almost 60% in 2025, to a record of nearly $200 billion, while private markets fundraising as a whole fell 5% (McKinsey). Much of today’s innovation depends on physical assets like data centers, power, and satellites. These businesses need a lot of money up front, and their value depends on projects being delivered on time.
3. More managers are selling companies to new funds they also run
Manager-led secondary deals reached $62 billion in the first half of 2026, up 32% on a year earlier, and 89% of that volume was continuation funds (Jefferies). These deals are legal and increasingly common. But the manager sits on both sides of the sale, so it may later need to show that the price and the process were fair.
4. Funds are reaching new investors and running on new technology
US retail money into alternative fund structures reached $204 billion in 2025, more than double the 2023 level (McKinsey). Semi-liquid private-market funds now hold nearly $600 billion (Morningstar), and some managers are moving fund records onto blockchain. Individual investors rely more heavily on what a manager tells them, which puts more weight on accurate valuations and clear documents.
5. AI is changing how investment firms work
86% of surveyed investment adviser firms have policies on how staff use AI, and 85% named it their hottest compliance topic for 2026 (2026 Investment Management Compliance Testing Survey). What matters is where AI shapes professional judgment, and who checks the result.
The Question Worth Asking
Which of your investment management clients have changed what they invest in, how their funds are structured or sold, or how they use technology since their last insurance review?
None of this means a client’s current cover falls short. But if a client’s business looks different from when its insurance was last reviewed, now’s a good time to take another look.
Get the Full Research Report
These five changes are drawn from our new research report, The Investment Manager’s Job Is Getting More Complex. It sets out the data behind each trend, what it means for managers, and the questions worth raising with clients, with every figure traced to its original source.
Download the report HERE.
