FORTY Under 40: Nathan Willi

Nathan Willi, senior vice president, senior investment adviser, PNC Insurance Solutions Group.

Willi is responsible for working with both captive and commercial insurance clients to develop custom investment strategies that support their business and risk management objectives.

He began in insurance asset management as an analyst with PNC’s Insurance Solutions Group in 2016, followed by several years helping construct and manage fixed income portfolios for insurance companies. More recently, his career came full circle when he began his current role with the Insurance Solutions Group where he manages key insurance client relationships.

Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, son and two dogs and when not spending time with them, he serves on the boards of the Greater Pittsburgh community food bank, the CFA Society Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan alumni club of Pittsburgh.

“My primary job isn’t just managing investment portfolios, but maintaining a culture where collective excellence is the baseline.”

Looking back at your journey over the past year, what accomplishment are you most proud of, and how has becoming a FORTY Under 40 finalist influenced your perspective on that achievement?

Winning the Captive Review Investment Specialist of the Year award for the third straight year is a point of pride – not for the hardware, but for what it says about our team’s consistency. In asset management, anyone can have a good year but a three-year run proves our success is repeatable. Being named a finalist for FORTY Under 40 alongside two of my colleagues reinforces my belief that this is a team sport. It’s a reminder that my primary job isn’t just managing investment portfolios, but maintaining a culture where collective excellence is the baseline.

What key challenge did you face in your work this year? How did you overcome it and what did it teach you about leadership at this stage of your career?

Our team faced the ‘curse of success’ this year: rapid growth leading to a significantly heavier workload. The challenge wasn’t just managing the volume, but doing so without diluting the high-touch service our clients expect. Consequently, I had to learn the difference between “doing” and “leading” and focused on providing our younger team members with some key responsibilities. 

It reminded me that I once needed someone to give me “at bats” to build my own confidence and gain crucial experience. Watching them step up was one of the most rewarding parts of my year.

In what ways have you tried to push innovation or rethink traditional approaches within your sector, and what impact has that had on your team or organisation?

The industry often treats actuarial risk and investment strategy as two separate silos and we have worked to dismantle that. By leveraging our enterprise financial modelling team, we’re integrating actuarial data directly into the investment decision-making process. This data driven collaboration allows us to move beyond off-the-shelf, model portfolios and create strategies that are truly synchronised with each captive’s unique risk profile. The impact has been clear: more confidence from our clients and a much more surgical approach to investment management.

How do you see your role evolving over the next three to five years, and what initiatives are you most excited to pursue as you continue to grow professionally?

I see my role shifting from managing the portfolios to mentoring the next generation of investment advisers at PNC and across the broader insurance landscape. Professionally, I’m focused on the intersection of human expertise and AI. I am exploring how AI can automate the analytical “noise”, allowing our team to focus on the high-level, bespoke advisory work clients value most. The goal for the next five years isn’t just to grow our AUM, but to redefine the efficiency with which we manage it.

Many of the FORTY Under 40 winners are recognised for both business success and broader impact – how do you balance professional excellence with contributions to your community or industry landscape?

I view professional excellence and community impact as two sides of the same coin: stewardship. Whether I’m strategising for a client or serving on a non-profit’s board, the objective is the same – responsible management of resources to ensure long-term stability. I don’t see community work as a separate “to-do” list; it’s an extension of the “servant leader” mindset I try to bring to the office every morning. If you’re successful in business but indifferent to your community, you’ve only done half the job.

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