The world's largest property and casualty insurers, 2026

Allianz SE has overtaken Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to become the world's second largest property and casualty (P&C) insurer, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence's annual rankings.

Allianz grew its P&C insurance service revenue by a relatively modest 5% year on year, but Berkshire's gross premium earned was flat, allowing the German rival to sneak ahead. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. is still the world's P&C largest insurer by a comfortable margin. Its 2025 direct premiums of $111.68 billion were more than $23 billion more than Allianz's $88.56 billion insurance service revenue.

Other changes near the top of the table include Chubb Ltd. taking ninth place from Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc. as Chubb's 5.6% growth in gross premiums earned coincided with a 2.9% decline at Liberty Mutual.

Revenues up, loss ratios down

Property insurers generally had a solid 2025, with the top 50 collectively growing revenues 6.4% to $1.73 trillion. The group's mean loss ratio, which measures claims and expenses as a percentage of premiums, improved year over year to 61.4% from 64.3% in 2024 despite starting the year with devastating wildfires in Los Angeles that Swiss Re AG estimated cost the insurance industry $40 billion.

US P&C underwriters, which account for 18 of the top 50, outperformed the wider insurance market in 2025. They generated a total shareholder return (TSR) of 18% in 2025 against an insurance industry average of 15%, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group.

With no major wildfires, this year got off to a much better start. The effect of catastrophes on P&C insurers' collective combined ratio, which measures underwriting profit, was 4.6 percentage points lower in the first half of 2026 than in the same period of 2025, according to Sridhar Manyem, senior director of industry research at rating agency A.M. Best.

"There has been a significant turnaround in personal auto as well over the past two years and the price increases that were implemented have been earning through, making this line score record profits," he said in emailed comments. Insurers also enjoyed better investment results in the first half of 2026, Manyem added.

Pricing pressure

Higher profits mean insurers have more underwriting capacity, which ratchets up competition. Commercial insurance rates were down 5% globally in the third quarter of 2026, according to insurance brokerage group Marsh's global insurance market index, marking the ninth-consecutive quarter of rate decreases.

Reinsurance prices are also falling. Property-catastrophe reinsurance prices fell by up to 25% at the June 1 renewals, according to reinsurance broker Howden Re.

"In the surplus lines and specialty commercial markets, competition has ramped up with supply outweighing demand, and particularly for specific lines of coverage and risk classes," Manyem said. "An abundance of capital and heightened competition among insurers, reinsurers and managing general agents has shifted more of the negotiating power to the buyer's or policyholder's side."

Lower prices make it more difficult for insurers and reinsurers to grow profitably. The top 50 insurers ranking reveals some signs that conditions are starting to bite. While collective revenues of the top 50 grew 6.4% year over year, that was slower than the 8.3% pace recorded in last year's rankings.

Eight of the top 50 P&C companies reported year-on-year reductions in revenues in this year's ranking, compared with just two companies in 2025. As was the case last year, the biggest revenue reduction was reported by Nationwide, with an 8.1% decline in direct premiums earned. Declines in standard insurance lines were only partially offset by growth in specialty excess and surplus business, according to 2025 regulatory filings for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

Nationwide in a statement to Market Intelligence said direct earned premiums used in this analysis do not capture all of the company's P&C business and fail to provide a complete view of the company's P&C portfolio.

"Our 2025 P&C results reflect intentional work to strengthen underwriting discipline and modernize how risk is assessed and managed," the company said. "Over the last several years, we have made deliberate investments in more granular risk modeling, concentration management, and multi-peril exposure analysis." Through the first half of 2026, Nationwide's gross written premium, which it says better represents its full P&C portfolio, "is approximately three times the industry growth rate."

Swiss Re reported a reduction in insurance service revenue of 5.1%, driven by cutbacks in US casualty business in its P&C reinsurance division and the non-renewal of a specific portfolio of business written in Ireland by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Ltd.

Companies are ranked by 2025 property and casualty gross premiums earned or IFRS 17 insurance service revenues where available. Property and casualty gross premiums written, net premiums written, net premiums earned, or statutory direct premiums written are used respectively when a company did not report gross premiums earned. Gross premiums earned is more comparable with IFRS 17's insurance service revenues.

Premiums are converted to US dollars at the average currency exchange rate for each respective fiscal year. Analysis is a best-efforts basis limited to public insurance companies around the world and nonpublic insurance companies in North America and Europe.

M&A prospects, emerging risks

While growth may be harder to come by, there are some avenues for P&C companies. One path is acquisitions, which the industry's profitability and slimmer organic growth prospects make more affordable. Acquisitions fueled the biggest revenue increases in this year's top 50.

For instance, UK-based Aviva climbed eight places to 30 after its P&C insurance service revenue jumped 32% to $20.40 billion. The increase was driven by Aviva's acquisition of UK personal lines insurer Direct Line, whose revenues started showing up in Aviva's results after the acquisition closed on July 1, 2025.

Zurich Insurance Group AG will likely rise up the rankings once it integrates revenues from its acquisition of specialty insurance group Beazley PLC, which closed on Oct. 2.

More M&A is expected as additional privately held insurance assets come to the end of their ownership terms, according to Guru Johal, global specialty and reinsurance markets leader at Deloitte. In addition to traditional M&A, there also continues to be investor interest in gaining exposure to the insurance and reinsurance markets through minority stakes and structures such as special purpose reinsurance vehicles, known as sidecars.

"You don't always have to go and buy a company to get access to the risk," Johal said in an interview. "You can expose a significant amount of capital through certain structures, and those don't always get the headlines."

There is also scope for organic growth in some areas thanks to new, emerging and changing risks.

"There are genuinely new risk pools that are opening up that we can see either through cyber, or technology-related [risks] or products that come in to address the evolving risks that we have today." Johal said.

Turning a profit may be a tougher task, but that does not mean the industry is heading for a period of sub-par performance. P&C results overall may not be as strong in 2026 as they were in 2025, A.M. Best's Manyem said, but will be "still favorable and solid."

"Operating results should continue to benefit from increased investment income results owing to higher yields, as well as strong cash flow," he added.

The current environment will separate the winners from the laggards, according to Michael Schachtner, managing director at Boston Consulting Group.

"You will probably see that those carriers who are able to keep their underwriting discipline will continue to deliver profitable returns, which will lead to a higher TSR," he said. "Those who don't have the discipline will probably fall further back in the total shareholder returns in the future."