(Bloomberg) — Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest insurance market, is seeking to boost participation in its capital pools by Asian individual investors.Fewer than 20 of some 2,000 individual members, called “names” on the 318-year-old market, are from Asia, Nigel Hanbury said in an interview in Hong Kong. Hanbury, head of Hampden Agencies Ltd., the larger of two agents for private investors in Lloyd’s, aims to raise that to 10 percent in the next five years.

Asia’s growing wealth appeals to Lloyd’s, which seeks to broaden its sources of capital. The total assets of individuals in the region with more than $1 million to invest swelled to $7.6 trillion in 2005 from $7.1 trillion a year earlier, according to a report by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch & Co.

“When you are rich, you need to spread your money among different asset classes,” said Hanbury, who’s visiting investors in Hong Kong. Participation in Lloyd’s pools is attractive because insurance risks don’t correlate with stocks and other investments, he said. “It’s a genuinely alternative asset class.”

Wealthy individuals in Singapore have the most alternative investments in Asia, with 37 percent of their assets in products such as hedge funds, commodities and fine art, the Capgemini and Merrill report said. Hong Kong’s rich in have about 20 percent of assets in such investments and the ratio in Japan is 23 percent.

Lloyd’s, which started as a forum where merchants, ship owners and captains exchanged shipping news, now has 66 membership syndicates that insure everything from satellites, art and jewellery to commercial buildings and airplanes. The underwriting business is backed by capital provided by individual and corporate members.

Individuals invest a minimum of $400,000 ($756,460) to become a member, Hanbury said. While 80 percent of Lloyd’s business comes outside the UK, 80 percent of its capital is provided by investors in the country. Investors through Hampden reaped an average return of more than 25 percent between 2002 and 2004, Hanbury said. Payouts due to hurricane damage caused a loss of 6.5 percent in 2005, and the firm estimates this year’s return to reach 40 percent, he added.