Insurance Solutions

Pramila Agrawal is the head of the custom income strategies (CIS) group at Loomis, Sayles & Company and a portfolio manager for specialized fixed income mandates. She is also a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Pramila’s areas of expertise include asset allocation, managing book income and tax-aware, cross asset portfolios spanning corporates, municipals and securitized. In her role, she co-manages assets with investment teams and collaborates with clients to design customized solutions. Pramila has over 16 years of investment industry experience and joined Loomis Sayles in 2007 as an analyst in the quantitative research risk analysis group. Later, she joined the relative return team as a strategist and was promoted to portfolio manager for the buy & maintain strategies in 2018. In 2019, Pramila was named head of the CIS group and began managing the municipal bond products in 2021. Prior to Loomis Sayles, she was in a research and development position at Metis Design. Pramila earned a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, in India, and a master’s of science degree and PhD in Robotics from Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN.

Colin Dowdall is the head of insurance solutions at Loomis, Sayles & Company. He is responsible for business development, strategy and relationship management of insurance general account clients and prospects. Colin works extensively with investment teams at large North America and Bermuda insurance companies to deliver the full investment capabilities of Loomis Sayles. Colin joined Loomis Sayles in 2018 from AAM, a boutique insurance asset manager, where he was most recently principal and director of marketing & business development. During his time at AAM, the organization grew assets under management from $15 billion to $24 billion. Previously, Colin was at JP Morgan Asset Management, where he began as an institutional sales analyst within the insurance team, served as chief of staff to the institutional Americas chief executive officer, and later became a client advisor in global insurance solutions. He earned a BA from the University of Notre Dame.

Lauren McDermott is a director within insurance solutions at Loomis, Sayles & Company, where she is responsible for business development and relationship management with insurance companies in both the United States and the Bermuda offshore markets. She joined Loomis Sayles in 2022 and has 16 years of investment industry experience. Prior to Loomis Sayles, Lauren held a number of positions that drove third party insurance asset growth. Most recently, Lauren was director of insurance client solutions at Aviva Investors, where she developed new business within the insurance and hospital/healthcare markets. Previously, Lauren was at Brown Brothers Harriman, as the head of Business Development and led their strategic efforts, with an emphasis on growth within the insurance market. Prior to that, she was a director within Global Business Development at Barings. In that position, she served as a key member of the insurance team responsible for building and expanding a broader set of capabilities to serve their growing client base across life, property & casualty, health and re-insurers. Lauren began her career on the sell-side in fixed income sales for Bear Stearns. She earned a BS from Georgetown University.

Erik Troutman is a senior insurance and asset liability management (ALM) strategist in the custom income strategies group at Loomis, Sayles & Company. In this role, he works closely with Natixis Investment Managers on insurance opportunities, including asset allocation, capital optimization and providing advisory and solution support. Additionally, Erik provides thought leadership and develops internal tools and infrastructure for servicing insurance clients. He joined Loomis Sayles in 2019 and has 28 years of investment industry experience. Previously, Erik was an insurance ALM specialist at Wellington Management, where he provided advisory and solution support to insurance clients, conducted ALM studies, risk based capital analysis and many other insurance client support functions, and helped to develop insurance models to enhance Wellington’s insurance capabilities. Prior to this, he was an investment policy officer at John Hancock Life Insurance, where he assisted with the ALM process for life and annuity products. Erik earned a BA and MA in mathematics from Boston University.

Sean Saia is an insurance director on the insurance solutions team at Loomis, Sayles & Company. In this role, he provides individualized service to the firm's insurance solutions clients. Sean joined Loomis Sayles in 2021 as an investment director for the custom income strategies group and has 26 years of investment industry experience. Previously, he was at Goldman Sachs, first as a vice president and senior lead portfolio manager, and later as a vice president of insurance sales and client relationship management, responsible for developing relationships, servicing and introducing strategic solutions to the firm’s clients and prospects across multiple insurance sectors. Prior to this, Sean was head of insurance asset management at Dwight Asset Management, serving as a fixed income portfolio manager and head of the insurance team. Earlier, he was a senior vice president and senior portfolio manager for fixed income total return and stable value accounts at Dwight Asset Management. Sean earned a BS from the University of Vermont. He is a founding member of CFA Society Vermont.

Linda Shin is an insurance director at Loomis, Sayles & Company. In this role, she is responsible for servicing the firm's insurance clients and is the lead contact for half of the insurance relationships. Linda works closely with the other members of the insurance team to maintain and grow the business, looking to provide avenues of partnership and customized solutions to the specific needs of insurers. She joined Loomis Sayles in 2017 as an administrative assistant to the strategic relationship (sub-advisory) team. In 2019, Linda transitioned to an associate role within the insurance team. She earned a BA in chemistry from Williams College.

Zara Din is the head of EMEA consultant relations and insurance solutions director at Loomis Sayles Investments Limited, Loomis Sayles’ London-based entity. In this role, she oversees consultant relations strategy and oversees and develops relationships with insurance clients and prospects across the EMEA region. Zara has 13 years of investment industry experience and joined Loomis Sayles in 2017. Previously, she worked for six years at Schroders, building relationships with global and UK investment consultant firms and focusing on institutional clients in the UK. Zara earned a BSc in Business, Finance and Investment and an MS in Financial Services from the University of Ulster.