State Farm & Berkshire maintain status as top US P&C insurers
The top two U.S. Property and Casualty (P&C) writers in 2018 remained State Farm and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, respectively, while Chubb INA Group cracked the top ten.
This is supported by the Top 100 U.S. P&C Insurance Companies list published by Reinsurance News, which is based on analysis of information provided by ratings firm A.M. Best.
State Farm has retained its position at the top of the list despite some fairly big rises from other competitors, according to data comparing the net premiums written (NPW) of the top 100 players in the U.S. P&C insurance category in 2018 to the prior year.
State Farm’s NPW for the full year of 2018 climbed by 1.3% over the prior year to about USD 65.5 billion, solidifying the insurer’s position as the biggest writer of U.S. P&C business.
A branch of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI), ranked second on the list for the second year in a row after recording about USD 50.3 billion in NPW in 2018, an increase of more than 8% from the prior year.
The U.S. P&C business of Progressive Insurance Group increased by more than 20% in 2018 to USD 32.6 billion, moving the company up the list two spots to third. The top five was rounded out by Liberty Mutual Insurance, which increased its premiums by 11.2% year over year, followed by Allstate Insurance Group, which grew by 5.2% over the period and had NPW of USD 32.3 billion.
Looking at the remaining top ten, Travelers’ 5.4% NPW growth translated into a recorded USD 25.8 billion in premiums for the year, keeping the insurer in sixth place and slightly ahead of USAA’s USD 21.5 billion in NPW for the same time period.
Chubb INA Group saw the most NPW growth among the top ten companies during the period, rising by 77.8% to USD 19.6 billion, moving the company up to eighth place on the list of the Top 100 U.S. P&C Insurance Companies from twelfth a year earlier.
Interestingly, Nationwide Group, which saw premiums in the region decrease by over 4% to USD 18.1 billion, placing the company in ninth place, was the only participant inside the top 10 to actually disclose a decline in NPW in the period.
With NPW of USD 14.6 billion, up 1.3% from the prior year, AIG rounds out the top 10 in 2018. The only insurer to drop out of the top 10 was Farmers Insurance Group, which was impacted by price hikes at other businesses as well as the fact that its premiums fell by 1.6% over the year to USD 14 billion.
The full Reinsurance News directory of the Top 100 U.S. P&C Insurance Companies can be accessed here.
