YouSaid · the spoken record

Vlad Barbalat

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65
first
2026-06-23
most recent
2026-06-23
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1
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podcast

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  1. “I could do it. That's a classic example of conglomerates. Shareholders don't generally welcome that approach. And it's especially difficult if you're starting from scratch. Why should you have the right to build a world-class investment organization if you're not really starting there? I think the public sphere therefore operates differently and has helped to a very, very tight standard on the underwriting side. Now, the flip side of that, if you're a mutual, you don't have the forcing function of shareholders to ensure that you are operating at your best. But that's an optional feature of mutuality. That's not a requirement. The only requirement is that you can't raise equity. We've made the choice that we want to be an exceptional operator, and that includes exceptional underwriting results and exceptional investment organization. How it benefits our policyholders? Well, first and foremost, again, we are going to be there through thick and thin when inevitably trouble strikes.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Actually, reverse that. I think as a public insurer, you're not likely to be able to pursue what we're doing. Because if you're a shareholder of a public insurer, you can bifurcate these two things and say, you have historically not been a sophisticated investor. You've been much more conservative. What I ask of you management is to deliver me a very consistent margin on the underwriting. I'd like to get as much capital back from you in the form of dividends or buybacks. I don't need you to recreate an investment firm on the asset side of your balance sheet because if I wanted you to do that, well, instead I could just take...”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “coming in but that's an example of where if you build a fortress balance sheet you're able to do things that others will not how do you build that fortress balance sheet through two main engines of profitability one is the underwriting part but that's a thin margin business and then through the asset side where if you simply take the approach of let me buy a 4 percent investment grade bond or 5 percent investment grade bond versus trying to achieve a seven eight nine ten percent return on the totality of your portfolio it's all the difference in the world it is a competitive business where the amount of capital you have will dictate the opportunity set that is available to both on the liability side and the asset side”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I really do believe what I described before, which is really unique place to sit in the financial system, in the fabric of the economy. You sit and you support the economy in two different ways. But specifically, why not just invest the whole thing in a bond portfolio and go away? That would prevent you from ultimately being a balance sheet that can adopt new technologies because that's obviously a constant in our world. It is a balance sheet that is able to adapt to the evolution of the economy. Risks are evolving all the time. The risks that insurance companies took on 25 years ago are very different than they are today. And for sure, they will be different tomorrow. Give me an example. Data centers. This is a totally different scale of the asset and values than of an asset that have existed before. Insurance balance sheets aren't large enough to just absorb that. That's why you have an extension into all forms of third-party capital.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “component of the organization is one of the largest and most important responsibilities I have to make sure that we have the people that will actually engage the right way because the first time someone turns that call away or behaves in a manner which doesn't demonstrate curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit those referrals that it talked about earlier they'll dry up because the reputation is built on that entrepreneurial spirit”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “A risk on people we believe in if we see integrity, if we see an idea that makes sense, and if we can find a true partnership that has the ability to serve both the originator in this case and liberty for the long run. That links to something very important to me in my time in this role, which is to say what possesses a professional sitting at a stable, large insurance asset manager to take entrepreneurial risk. That's a cultural dynamic and one that shouldn't be taken for granted because the easy answer is this falls outside my area of comfort. Why in the world would I take the risk? We have been incredibly purposeful in developing a culture where people have the incentive, the types of people that would be curious and interested and have the governance structure in place to actually take those risks. And I view that.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Above all, if you're coming from a place of a newish idea and you've got ideas and you're looking for capital partners, one is we always want to get that phone call. By the virtue of what I've described before, our approach to the way we partner with people, these kinds of things come as referrals rather than a barrage of cold calls. And that in itself is super helpful. What are we interested in? There's a very wide waterfront of things that we do, and we already know that. If something falls outside the waterfront, There's obviously going to be a higher burden of proof on that. We may not have the expertise. We may not be able to assess or find a fit in the book, but that's more rare. What is more interesting is what's the unique proposition that is being brought forward. By the way, those are not frequent. It's not easy to be original in many of these industries and sub-industries. But we're willing to back people. We're willing to take”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Despite the growth, we continue to identify opportunities in the US that we feel a lot more comfortable with. That's one way to think about it. Largely U.S. focused asset classes, different parts of the capital structure. It's a multidimensional view that gets both developed but constantly refreshed at the top of the house for sensibility. There isn't a notion of we have to be this and we have to be that. The market's changing, the world's changing. We need to have the liquidity to always react. We need to be flexible. But at the same time, have permanence in stay of some of these businesses because that's what makes you a good partner and a good investor in some of them.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “that can decide to, for example, add businesses to its structure. It can acquire, and we need to be in position to always have the right balance of liquidity versus long-term investments that we make that allow us to do all that. So I would say liquidity management is actually an incredibly important component of how that broader portfolio gets constructed. We know that credit is going to be a large component of our business, and we want to make sure anything we enter, we have the right level of expertise. So for example, things we have not really done. We have not expanded much into the European market, largely because we don't think we have the right relationships in place there, the right expertise. And even though that particular region is more interesting than it has been in the past, given all the geopolitical dynamics, it is not a place where we are spending our time, despite the size of the book.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yeah, any of that stuff I've been a macro trader, that game hardly works and certainly doesn't work for an institution like ours. God bless those that keep playing it and those that are successful at it. Our house view is much more about what long-term businesses and franchises do we want to be in? The notion of being in a business like private equity, that's not a one or two or three or five year business. It has very little relevance of what our feelings may be on the environment the next two years or three years. What I want to always be is in position to be valuable to our partners, be in position to deploy capital into interesting opportunities, structure our risks in a way that is always cognizant of our obligations to Liberty Mutual Group, not only through the lens of making sure we meet those policies. That's sacrosanct. But Liberty Mutual Group is a large entity.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Let me first tell you what it's not. It is not an attempt in any way, shape, or form to predict the future. In fact, one of the sayings we have at Liberty Mutual Investments is to say we're not in the business of predicting a future. We're in the business of being prepared for all its eventualities. A house view that tries to predict.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Lending not against corporate balance sheets, but against ultimately some pool of collateral. Same concept applies. We've got many different ways we can go to market, get that exposure. And that totality of a toolkit has led to a very, very broad and interesting ecosystem in itself. You mentioned the nexus of where we sit. We get to talk to lots of different people with very interesting approaches to the marketplace. And our job is to be competent across all those choices because if we are We naturally become a hub of interesting transactions that come our way and opportunities to participate in really unique off-market things.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Want. We've got lots of different ways of getting that exposure. And this is critical because I think as an investor that sits in our platform, you have the choice set that very few investors have, which is, again, to figure out, do I want that in direct form? Do I want that as a co-invest? Do I want that in some club format with other sophisticated investors? Do I want to be an LP because the particular risk is so difficult to access, so specialized that I have no aspiration or ambition of trying to replicate that? I view that as an extension of my workforce. And that's the way I'm going to get that exposure. Same applies in our growth equity portfolio. Multiple businesses housed there. One is private equity. Second is real estate. Third is energy and infrastructure. And fourth, what we describe as alternative credit. I just talked about the corporate credit business, alternative credit tends to be all forms of asset-back finance where you're”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “100%. The way I like to describe that is people very often start with a product, direct lending or high yield public or whatever else you want to take. We ask the question was what exposure do we want in the totality of our business? When you ask that question, the next question is assuming you could figure it out and have the ability to build that portfolio of risks, portfolio of exposures. The next thing you would do is you'd say, what's the best way for me to get those risks? And the options are many. The challenge is most organizations don't have options. You can take an organization that really has one way, which is to be an LP. So then you are going out, meeting managers, and ultimately allocating capital. You have people who are direct originators of that risk and pursue that. Perhaps that's a GP and many more. Our toolkit is vast once we determine what exposure we want.”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “All of them sit together, have one platform, one reporting structure, because we believe the expertise, frankly, is what's important”

    2026-06-23 · Invest Like the Best · Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source