Alternative investments, AI, affordability top NAIC's agenda for 2026

Transparency into how life insurers manage their investment portfolios, AI governance and affordability of insurance are the priorities for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2026.

Scott White, the association's 2026 president, said issues stemming from alternative investments and private credit remain under scrutiny by other commissioners. These include cases in which a private equity company acquires a life insurer and reallocates its portfolio into more complex, illiquid alternative assets such as real estate and commodities.

White, also the commissioner of Virginia's Bureau of Insurance, said the practice became common to achieve higher yields amid low interest rates following the 2008 financial crisis. Companies are now shifting more of these policyholder obligations offshore to jurisdictions with different financial regulatory frameworks than those in the US, a practice known as offshore asset-intensive reinsurance.

"There is about $1 trillion that's going offshore to jurisdictions like Bermuda or other jurisdictions, so we need to be cognizant of that," White said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

White added that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has made material changes to its solvency framework in the last three to four years, including its risk-based capital framework.

Also under scrutiny are new and emerging assets and how they are monitored and the role of credit rating agencies.

NAIC adopted the Actuarial Guideline 55 in August 2025 and it was effective at the end of 2025. The measure enhances reserve adequacy requirements for life insurers.

Affordability, availability challenges

The NAIC's emphasis on addressing insurance affordability includes ensuring that commissioners enhance their knowledge of their markets, White said, "not just at the state level, but at a more granular level."

In the homeowners market, where White said affordability and availability are more acute in certain areas of the country, the NAIC has "better insights to understand our market and develop solutions for that, whether it's mitigation measures through a state grant program or whatever it might be."

Much of the discussion on the affordability-availability issue centers around states such as California, where the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025 caused enormous damage, and Florida and Louisiana, where the threat of major hurricanes is constant.

However, White said affordability and availability are nationwide concerns, not just regional.

"We do get more complaints from consumers and we do get more inquiries from legislators," White said. "So, it's something that we are working every day to make sure folks are educated, and that we are maintaining a strong, stable, competitive market."

The issue was highlighted on some insurers' fourth-quarter earnings calls. Alan Schnitzer, CEO of The Travelers Cos. Inc., said during the insurer's call that the affordability issue is "an important one for all of us to be focused on," and that Travelers is working to achieve "the right price on the risk and earn a fair return for helping customers manage their risk."

While acknowledging that the affordability of homeowners insurance needs to be addressed, Chubb Ltd. CEO Evan Greenberg said during the company's fourth-quarter call that "multiple factors," such as the tort environment and catastrophes, need to be considered when seeking legislative solutions to the issue.

"So I would be careful of politicizing the affordability question as your point to homeowners insurance, or it's going to create, ultimately, an availability problem, and that will exacerbate affordability," Greenberg said.

White said ensuring consumers have the information they need to handle their insurance options is also a priority. He said those consumers may be facing higher auto insurance rates due to various circumstances, whether from buying a new car or from traffic infractions, and need to know what questions to ask insurers.

White said education is important, ensuring consumers know what tools they have to shop around and seek discounts.

Eyes on AI risks

White said the potential use of AI by insurers is "very exciting," pointing to its implementation in pricing and predictive rate models and, more recently, in underwriting and fraud detection.

Insurers such as The Allstate Corp. and The Hartford Insurance Group Inc. highlighted opportunities for growth from AI during their earnings calls in 2025.

Allstate CEO Tom Wilson said during the third-quarter call that generative AI has helped simplify billing and claims operations. He said the next step was incorporating agentic AI, an autonomous system that completes tasks with minimal human oversight, to help the company "reimagine customer value across the entire business model."

Hartford Insurance CEO Chris Swift said during the fourth-quarter earnings call that the insurer's AI system provides more consistent, data-rich insights with greater precision, while President Adin Tooker said AI's speed, ease and accuracy with small and medium-sized enterprises in the business insurance space is "a game changer."

However, White and the NAIC are concerned about the impact of AI on consumers.

"We want to make sure the way [insurers] use it is fair, that it's a safe, secure environment in which it's used and that there's transparency," White said. "We developed principles at the NAIC level that were put into a bulletin that provides guidance to regulators and to the industry."

The obligation of state regulators is to adopt the principles, which White said are centered on governance and risk management frameworks, and provide guidance to the insurance industry. He said the NAIC wants to ensure its guidance, which was adopted in 2023, is communicated.

"At the national level, we've seen about half the states adopt the bulletin," White said. "We're going to be pushing this year to try and get more states to adopt it, just so there's more consistency nationwide."

Privacy concerns also need to be addressed, said White. "We're under the same privacy laws ... passed in the early '90s."

"The way insurers collect and use information from policyholders has changed," White said. "So, we need to modernize our privacy laws to deal with that."