General Account Advisors

Independent · Fee-only · Edmond, Oklahoma

Investment oversight for insurers that don't have a chief investment officer.

General Account Advisors provides independent investment advice and portfolio oversight to small and mid-size insurance companies, public-entity risk pools, and captives. It is the governance a $5 billion company takes for granted, at a price that makes sense for a general account of $50 million to $750 million.

Request a Schedule D diagnostic See what we do
Who we serve

The carriers the large consultants were never built for.

Most insurers under $750 million in invested assets hand the portfolio to one or two outside managers and hope the board's finance committee can keep up. The managers are competent. What's missing is someone on the company's side of the table who has run a general account, reads a Schedule D for a living, and has no stake in which manager wins the mandate.

2,415U.S. insurers outsourced investment management to unaffiliated firms at year-end 2024, 53% of all filers.
67%of those outsourcers had under $250 million in assets.
$1.8Tof insurance assets advised by the twelve consultants in Clearwater Analytics' 2026 survey, about $150 billion each.

Sources: NAIC Capital Markets Bureau, Investment Management Outsourcing, YE2024; Clearwater Analytics Insurance Investment Outsourcing Report, 2026.

Property & casualty, life, title

Insurance companies

Mutuals, farm bureaus, specialty and professional-liability carriers, and small stock companies that rely on external managers and need independent oversight of them.

Municipal, county, school, association

Public-entity risk pools

Boards of elected officials and administrators who need an investment policy they can defend, a manager they can measure, and a plain-English quarterly report.

Single-parent and group captives

Captive insurers

Captives whose surplus has outgrown a bank money-market account and whose owners want an investment policy, a manager, and a review cadence proportionate to the balance sheet.

What we do

Four ways to engage. All of them start with your own filings.

Everything we do is built from the statutory statement you already file: Schedule D for bonds and stocks, Schedule DA for short-term holdings, Schedule BA for alternatives, and the investment income exhibits. No new data requests, no proprietary platform to buy.

Complimentary · Schedules D, DA, BA

Schedule D diagnostic

A written read-out that benchmarks your portfolio against a peer group of similarly sized carriers on yield, duration, credit quality, liquidity, alternatives exposure, and manager fees. Yours to keep whether or not we work together.

Annual retainer · fixed fee

Portfolio oversight

Ongoing, independent oversight of your investment program: policy review, manager monitoring and evaluation, quarterly reporting to the finance committee, rating-agency and regulatory support, and a standing line to a former CIO when a question comes up.

Fixed-fee project

Fee and mandate audit

What your managers charge against what a mandate of your size should cost, and whether the benchmark, guidelines, and cash position are working for you or for them. Usually the fastest way to add investment income without adding risk.

Fixed-fee projects

Policy, allocation, and search work

Investment policy statements written for the board that has to approve them, asset allocation and asset-liability studies sized to the book of business, manager searches run without conflicts, and board education sessions.

How an engagement works

Diagnostic first. Then a scope you can approve in one meeting.

Step 1 · two weeks

Diagnostic

You send the year-end statutory statement. We return a ten-page peer comparison and a short list of findings, with the method shown. No charge, no obligation.

Step 2 · one meeting

Findings review

A working session with the CFO or finance committee on what the numbers say, what's worth acting on, and what isn't. If nothing is worth acting on, we say so.

Step 3 · your call

Scope and fee

A fixed-fee project or an annual oversight retainer, priced on the size and complexity of the portfolio rather than on hours. The proposal fits on two pages.

Insights

Plain-language guides to the questions boards actually ask.

Written for CFOs, treasurers, finance committee chairs, and captive owners rather than for investment professionals. Each one ends with the questions the numbers should prompt.

Start here

Investment advice for small insurance companies

The five places a small insurer can get investment advice, who makes the decisions in each, how each is paid, and how to choose.

 Outsourced CIO

Outsourced CIO for insurance companies

What OCIO means for an insurer, when a smaller carrier actually needs one, and how discretionary outsourcing differs from independent oversight.

 Fractional CIO

A fractional CIO for insurers, risk pools, and captives

The function without the headcount: scope, cost against a full-time hire or an OCIO, and the governance a board should expect.

 ALM

Asset-liability management for insurance companies

Matching the portfolio to the reserves: duration, liquidity, rate shocks, and capital, sized for a general account without an ALM department.

 Schedule D

Reading your NAIC Schedule D

What each investment schedule shows, the handful of measures that matter to a finance committee, and the questions they should raise.

 Captives

Captive insurance investment management

When the captive's surplus has outgrown the bank: what the domicile allows and what a proportionate investment program looks like.
Questions

Questions small insurers ask about investment advice.

Who provides investment advice to small insurance companies?

Small insurers usually get investment advice from the asset manager that runs their portfolio, a discretionary outsourced CIO, a national consulting firm, or an independent adviser. General Account Advisors is an independent, fee-only adviser to insurers, public-entity risk pools, and captives with $50 million to $750 million of invested assets. Compare the options.

What does General Account Advisors do?

We oversee the investment program on the insurer's behalf. That means reviewing or writing the investment policy, monitoring and evaluating the outside managers, benchmarking the portfolio against peer carriers using statutory filings, auditing manager fees and mandates, and reporting to the finance committee in plain language.

Do you manage money or sell investment products?

No. General Account Advisors gives advice only. Your existing managers keep managing the portfolio. The firm does not manage assets and does not accept payments from asset managers, custodians, or product sponsors, so its only compensation is the fee the client pays.

What size of insurer do you work with?

Insurance companies, public-entity risk pools, and captives with roughly $50 million to $750 million of invested assets. That includes property and casualty, life, and title insurers, municipal, county, school, and association pools, and single-parent and group captives.

How is this different from an outsourced CIO?

A discretionary outsourced CIO takes over the portfolio and makes the investment decisions. We do not take discretion. The board keeps its managers and its authority, and we provide independent oversight of both. Read the full comparison.

How are fees set?

Fees are fixed, either an annual retainer for ongoing oversight or a set price for a project. They are based on the size and complexity of the portfolio, not on hours and not on a percentage of assets. The first step, a Schedule D diagnostic, is complimentary.

What is the Schedule D diagnostic?

It is a written read-out built from your year-end statutory statement. It compares your portfolio with similarly sized carriers on yield, duration, credit quality, liquidity, alternatives exposure, and manager fees. It takes about two weeks, costs nothing, and is yours to keep. How to read Schedule D.

Where are you located, and which states do you serve?

The firm is based in Edmond, Oklahoma, and works with clients in Oklahoma and neighboring states, including Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. We travel anywhere within a day's drive of Oklahoma City at no charge.

About

Jonathan L. Wilcox, CFA

Jonathan has spent 25 years in institutional investing, including eight as Chief Investment Officer of a $1.8 billion insurance general account. He started on the trading floor, pricing and trading derivatives at Peak6 and Citigroup, then moved to the advisory side at Cambridge Associates, where he counseled pension funds with billions of dollars in assets. He went on to run a general account himself, through a full interest-rate cycle and with a rating to protect.

He is also an entrepreneur. He owns and operates service businesses in the Oklahoma City metro, so he knows what it means to meet a payroll, read a P&L, and answer to a board of owners. That is the perspective General Account Advisors brings to a mutual's finance committee: institutional discipline, explained by someone who has sat on both sides of the table.

General Account Advisors is independent and fee-only. The firm does not manage assets and does not accept payments from asset managers, custodians, or product sponsors.

Experience25 years in institutional investing
CIOEight years running a $1.8B insurance general account
BackgroundDerivatives trading · institutional consulting · business ownership
CredentialsCFA charterholder · MBA, University of Chicago Booth
Based inEdmond, Oklahoma
Contact
Phone
405-757-5707
Office
Edmond, Oklahoma

To request the diagnostic

Email jwilcox@generalaccountadvisors.com, or call or text 405-757-5707, with your company name, approximate invested assets, and who manages the portfolio today. We'll follow up within two business days with what we need (usually only the year-end statutory statement) and a date for the read-out.

  • CFOs, treasurers, and finance committee chairs are the usual first contact.
  • Auditors, actuaries, and brokers who refer a client are welcome to join the first call.
  • We travel anywhere within a day's drive of Oklahoma City at no charge.