# Athene [[Apollo Global Management]]'s annuity machine — founded 2009, fully merged into Apollo in 2022, and by late 2025 the #1 US annuity seller. Athene is the template for private equity's colonization of insurance: retirees' annuity premiums become permanent capital for Apollo's credit engine, with ~$200B of reserves ceded to Athene's own Bermuda reinsurance affiliate, where disclosure runs ~60 pages instead of thousands. Pension-risk-transfer lawsuits target the offshore structure; regulators worry the model is [[Shadow Banking]] wearing an insurance license. > Status: stub — expand with the Apollo merger mechanics, Bermuda reinsurance structure, pension-risk-transfer litigation, and the PE-insurance regulatory fight. ## See Also - [[Private Equity Sector]] - [[Apollo Global Management]] · [[Marc Rowan]] · [[Shadow Banking]]