American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. on Thursday reported that it entered into an amendment to its investment agreement with its strategic partner, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. In its original agreement with Brookfield reached on Oct. 17, 2020, West Des Moines-based American Equity agreed to issue common stock to Brookfield in two tranches, with the objective of Brookfield attaining a cornerstone investor status in American Equity, whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Through the strategic partnership, Brookfield aims to reinsure $5 billion of existing liabilities and up to an incremental $5 billion of new sales of American Equity’s IncomeShield or similar fixed index annuity products, according to industry journal Artemis. The companies completed an initial issuance of $336.9 million worth of stock in December, with the agreement providing the subsequent issuance would be completed by June 17. The amendment changes the outside termination date in the investment agreement to Aug. 31. That termination date could be extended to Nov. 30 if only the needed regulatory approvals for the subsequent investment and reinsurance agreement remain to be completed. American Equity on June 7 submitted a binding reinsurance agreement with North End Re (Cayman) SPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brookfield, for Iowa Insurance Division regulatory approval. Brookfield Asset Management, based in Toronto, is a leading global alternative asset manager with over $600 billion of assets under management across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity and credit. Artemis wrote in March that Brookfield’s deal with American Equity is similar to reinsurance partnerships that Athene USA and Global Atlantic, two other Des Moines-based annuity and life companies, have instituted. Those “sidecar structures to channel third-party capital firepower into large life and annuity reinsurance deals are proving a mechanism to bring extra investor capital along to support market growth, while enabling the asset managers to do even larger deals, accumulating even more float on the back of end-investor allocations,” according to the Artemis analysis.