Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter has sold his majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, coming as federal regulators investigate potential financial improprieties at insurance and annuities companies owned by Walter.
On Aug. 12, multiple reports confirmed that former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital CEO Josh Kushner acquired the Lakers for a record-breaking sports franchise price of $12.5 billion from Walter. Walter’s sale came just over a year after he purchased his controlling stake in the Lakers from the Buss family, who owned the iconic NBA franchise since 1979.
Walter sold the Lakers for $2.5 billion more than the $10 billion valuation he bought the Lakers at in June 2025. His quick flip also came less than a month after Bloomberg reported news of Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co being investigated by the FBI, SEC, and the US attorney’s office in Manhattan.
The probe is examining whether the insurance firms failed to disclose that billions of dollars of their private credit holdings backed other parts of Walter’s business ventures. After Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring received grand jury subpoenas in February, the companies conducted an internal investigation that discovered “errors” in financial reporting, the companies said, per Bloomberg’s reporting.
Delaware Life and Clear Spring are subsidiaries of Group 1001, which operates under Walter’s TWG Global holding company that has stakes in multiple sports teams, including its recent sale of the Lakers. “TWG is aware of and cooperating with the investigation,” the firm said in a statement to Bloomberg on July 20.
Delaware Life had previously told regulators that roughly 3% of its invested assets — approximately $1.4 billion — involved related parties connected to Walter's other businesses. The new corrected figure is more than $17 billion, representing at least 39% of total invested assets for Delaware Life as of the end of 2025.
“One thing to note is that the sale of a sports asset at the holding company level doesn't tell us anything about a life insurer's statutory surplus. If that liquidity reaches the insurer, it reaches it through a separate transaction, most likely a capital contribution, and that shows up in filings,” financial services marketing professional Peter Dziedzic told InvestmentNews.
“Money moving the other direction, through an extraordinary dividend request, would be the more concerning signal,” added Dziedzic, who co-founded Life Insurance Strategies Group. He previously was an associate at law firms Ropes & Gray and Weil Gotshal & Manges.
S&P Global Ratings revised Delaware Life's outlook from “stable” to “negative” following its new disclosures of affiliated private credit investments, while S&P affirmed Delaware Life’s credit and financial strength rating of A-. Delaware Life is now executing a “remediation plan” to reduce its affiliated investment exposure.
Bloomberg also reported after Walter’s Lakers sale that TWG Global has approached multiple investment firms about deals to raise cash to help pay down loans on the books of its insurers that are under federal scrutiny.
TWG Global, the Lakers, and Group 1001 did not respond to emails seeking comment. A previous statement from Group 1001 to Bloomberg wrote that, "our capital position and liquidity remain strong, and our financial strength ratings are unchanged.”
Delaware Life held roughly $69 billion in total assets as of March, while Clear Spring held approximately $16 billion. Walter also owns Indiana-based annuities firm Gainbridge under TWG Global, as well as sports ownership stakes in MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the WNBA’s Sparks, Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women's Hockey League, and TWG Motorsports.
“Producers have been asking me about this since the news about Delaware Life first broke. They want to know what it means for business already on the books and whether to keep placing new cases,” said Dziedzic.
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“The industry has said almost nothing. Distributors hold appointments with these carriers. Asset managers and reinsurers are counterparties. Trade associations do not comment on open investigations. Nothing has forced the conversation, and the people sitting across from the client have the least to work with,” Dziedzic told InvestmentNews.
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