[thisisnico]

I'm assuming because it's difficult to open a hedge fund and obtain the same scale and amount of cash easily or quickly. Also, the fund is an entirely different model, you're paid management fees based on the profit you make your investors. If you own the insurance company, the investors (insurance payee) are not reaping the rewards of the invested cash, you take 100% of the rewards of other peoples money, interest free, think about how incredibly powerful that is.

[iguy]

Starting an insurance company is surely a lot more tightly regulated than starting a fund.

There are various values for "you" here: The professional who manages the fund day-to-day needs to be paid no matter what the company says it does. The owners have a choice of whether to sell the car-insurance side of their business. And people looking to start a new business from scratch have different concerns.