WASHINGTON, DC—Results are in from the latest semiannual Portfolio Lender Survey of insurance company investment performance conducted by the CRE Finance Council and Trepp LLC. The pattern that emerges when looking back over survey results from previous years is one of stability and reliability.

"These results provide clear evidence of extremely solid investment performance within insurance company portfolios," Todd Everett, chair of CREFC's portfolio lenders insurance company sub-forum, observed in early 2013, when the survey covered performance from the first two quarters of 2012. Managing director and head of real estate fixed income at Principal Real Estate Investors, Everett continued, "They also demonstrate the reasons we are seeing increasing allocations in commercial mortgages from this sector. The lowering level of losses and minor levels of high risk seem to indicate that insurance companies are benefitting from the recovery in real estate fundamentals."

Three years later, the newest results are comparable. Insurers' allocations to commercial mortgages showed a slight increase for the first six months of 2015 compared to year-end 2014, while the delinquency rate among these mortgages is bested only by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to recent figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association.