Unlisted securities held in life insurance: focus on real estate valuation

Luxembourg's insurance regulation permits a broad range of underlying investments in internal funds. These investments may manifest as unquoted/unlisted assets, depending on the overall investment strategy of the life insurance policy. Real estate, whether through funds or other appropriate structures, is also an acclaimed asset class in insurance policies, bringing a particular perspective.

As investors in these specific and typically more complex assets, insurers encounter increased risks and challenges. These risks include, but are not limited to, valuation concerns and extend to legal, compliance, governance, and other policy management matters. These aspects need to be assessed and monitored continuously, especially for cross-border policies.

The imperative for comprehensive and streamlined processes and controls is heightened, and implementing a clear action plan to address these challenges should be considered a priority.

In close collaboration with PwC's subject matter experts, PwC's Academy has designed a training made of 4 complementary building blocks to offer an effective, flexible and cost-efficient approach for insurance professionals to build-up and maintain their knowledge and competence in regards to the non-standard assets held in insurance:

• Insurance non-standard assets - The essentials (2h)
• Insurance non-standard assets - Business case (2h)
• Unlisted securities held in life insurance: focus on private equity valuation (2h) - Coming soon!
• Unlisted securities held in life insurance: focus on real estate valuation (2h)

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• acquire comprehensive knowledge on valuation concepts specific to real estate assets held in life insurance;
• understand recognised valuation methodologies, including valuation allocation techniques;
• gain an overview of the European real estate markets.

• Key concepts in real estate valuation
• Influencing factors on real estate values
• Recognised valuation methodologies
• European market updates

This training is coordinated by Anthony Dault, and Alexandre Goossens, Partners at PwC Luxembourg.

Anthony is a partner specialised in insurance/reinsurance and international tax structure, and is actively involved in PwC Luxembourg Reinsurance and Insurance Group (RIG), including the insurance and reinsurance regulatory team. Anthony has more than 18 years of experience serving several multinationals, subsidiaries of European and US registered companies reporting under IFRS or Lux GAAP in the insurance and reinsurance sector, starting in 2003 in PwC Paris insurance department and in PwC Luxembourg. In the past years, Anthony has been involved in the development of the PwC Luxembourg insurance regulatory practice, with a strong focus on cross-border distribution as well as regulatory licensing projects. In that context, he co-heads the IDD service offering of PwC Luxembourg, and is a member of the ACA IDD working group.

Alexandre, Partner, joined PwC Luxembourg in September 2014 and is responsible for the Real Estate and Infrastructure Advisory services. Alexandre has been active in the real estate market having been both a consultant and a valuer and has gained a strong experience.

He also leads a team dedicated to the annual review of more than 2,000 assets in real estate, debt (backed by real estate collaterals), infrastructure and forestry with an exposure on world markets and is managing an extensive real estate market database that covers all markets and all sectors. Alexandre is responsible for the implementation of models and processes for the three key functions for fund management companies in the context of AIFMD (valuation, risk management, portfolio management).He is also an active member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and is the lead instructor in real estate valuation.