PERSONAL FINANCE INSURANCE

Top 10 Insurance
Companies By The
Metrics

BY ADAM HAYES | Updated Aug 8, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Largest by Market Capitalization
Largest by Sales
The Bottom Line
EXPAND +

There are a number of ways to rank the size of

insurance companies. Companies can be
measured by their market capitalization (the
value of the company on a stock exchange) or
by using sales figures, such as net premiums
written in a year or how many policies were
sold.

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K E Y TA K E A W AYS

Insurance companies are important

players in the global financial
economy, although they may not be as
flashy as investment banks or hedge
funds.
Insurance companies come in many
sizes and specialize in different policy
lines, from health to life to property &
casualty.
Here we compare some of the largest
insurers by market cap and by
premium sales.

Largest by Market Capitalization

Investors can buy shares of publicly traded
companies in the insurance industry. The
largest insurance companies as of 2018 by
market capitalization on the world stock
exchanges were:

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Non-health Insurance Companies:

Market
Company Name
Capitalization

Berkshire Hathaway
( $308 billion
BRK.A)

China Life Insurance

$80 billion
(LFC)

Allianz (AZSEY) $76.8 billion

American
International Group $72.3 billion
(AIG)

Ping An of China
$65.6 billion
(PNGAY)

MetLife (MET) $59.4 billion

AXA (
$57.8 billion
AXA)

AIA Group Hong

$54.4 billion
Kong (AAIGF)

ING Groep (ING) $54.4 billion

Zurich Insurance
$45.4 Billion
(ZURVY)

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(Source: Thompson Reuters)

Health Insurance and Managed Health

Care Companies:

Company Name Market

Capitalization

United Healthcare
$91.8 billion
(UNH)

Wellpoint (
$34.3 billion
WLP)

Aetna (AET) $29.8 billion

CIGNA Corp. (CI) $26.8 billion

Humana (HUM) $21.1 billion

Centene Corp. (CNC) $5.7 billion

Health Net, Inc. (

$3.9 billion
HNT)

WellCare Health
$3.1 billion
Plans (WCG)

Healthspring (
$3.7 billion
HS)

Molina Healthcare
$2.4 billion
(MOH)

(Source: Thompson Reuters)

Not all insurance companies are publicly

traded. In fact, many insurers are structured as
mutual companies where policy holders of
participating policies are essentially partial
owners of the company. The mutual company
model for an insurance company dates back
hundred of years, and there are certain benefits
conferred on policyholders that do not exist
with publicly traded (stock company) insurers.

Largest Insurance Companies by

Sales and Product Line
It is useful to differentiate between the type of
insurance, or line, that is being considered
when considering the largest insurance
companies. Using sales data is helpful as some
of the largest insurance companies in the
United States are not publicly traded and
therefore their market value is not easily
ascertained.

Property & Casualty

Property casualty insurers write policies
covering property such as real estate,
dwellings, cars and other vehicles. They also
write policies dealing with liabilities that may
be incurred by accident or negligence related
to those properties to defray the cost of
lawsuits or medical damages resulting from
such incidents.

The top U.S. property casualty companies in

2018 by net premiums written (the amount of
money that non-life policies can expect to
receive over the life of the contract, less
commissions and costs) are:

Net Premiums
Company
Written

State Farm Group $64.6 billion

Berkshire Hathaway
$46.0 billion
(BRK.A)

Allstate Insurance
$30.6 billion
Group (ALL)

Liberty Mutual $28.6 billion

Progressive
Insurance Group $27.1 billion
(PGR)

Travelers Group
$24.5 billion
(TRV)

USAA Group $19.6 billion

Nationwide Group $18.8 billion

Farmers Insurance
$14.3 billion
Group

American
International Group $14.2 billion
(AIG)

(Source A.M. Best)

Life Insurance Companies

Life Insurance companies promise to pay out a
lump sum benefit upon the death of the
insured. Although actuarial science has created
mortality tables to accurately estimate the
future liability of policies to be paid, having
financial strength ensures that these
companies can meet all of their obligations
while still earning a profit.

Life Insurance companies in the U.S. can be

ranked by direct premium written (the amount
of new policies written directly and not re-
insured). For 2018:

Total Direct Market

Company
Premium Share

Metropolitan
$12.6 billion 7.87%
Group (MET)

Northwestern
$10.1 billion 6.29%
Mutual

New York Life

$8.8 billion 5.48%
Group

Prudential of
$8.6 billion 5.33%
America (PRU)

Lincoln
$6.9 billion 4.30%
National

MassMutual $6.6 billion 4.15%

Aegon (AEG) $4.6 billion 2.90%

John Hancock $4.4 billion 2.84%

State Farm $4.0 billion 2.73%

Guardian Life
$3.8 billion 2.38%
Insurance Co.

(Source: NAIC)

Health Insurance Companies

Health insurance companies provide policies to
cover all or part of policyholder's health and
medical costs. Policies may be purchased
individually or through an employer.
Technically, the United States government is
the largest health insurance provider in
America through the Medicare program, Social
Security and with Medicaid administered by
individual states.

The largest non-government sponsored U.S.

health insurance companies measured by total
direct premium collected in 2016 was:

Total Direct Market

Company
Premium Share

UnitedHealth
$125 billion 12.90%
Group (UNH)

Kaiser
Foundation $72.6 billion 7.46%
Group

Anthem Inc
$59.8 billion 6.15%
Group

Aetna Group
(AET $54.3 billion 5.58%
)

Humana
$53.8 billion 5.53%
Group

HCSC Group $32.3 billion 3.31%

Centene Corp
$25.7 billion 2.64%
Group

Cigna Health
$24.0 billion 2.47%
Group (CI)

Molina
Healthcare Inc $17.8 billion 1.83%
Group

Independence
Health Group $17.0 billion 1.75%
Inc Group

(Source: NAIC. Note: The sales data on

insurance companies is from 2016, the last year
of available data.)

The Bottom Line

Ranking the largest insurance companies can
be done in a number of ways. Shares of
publicly traded companies can be bought to
help build a well-diversified investment
portfolio that has exposure to the financial and
healthcare sectors. Identifying which types of
insurance a company primarily deals with
helps determine which firms are competitors
and which really are not. Looking at sales
figures, or premiums collected in a year, one
can also see how public companies stack up
against privately held or mutual companies
which make up a large segment of the industry.

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Related Terms
Understanding Insurance Claims
An insurance claim is a formal request by a
policyholder to an insurance company for coverage
or compensation for a covered loss or policy event.
The insurance company validates the claim and, once
approved, issues payment to the insured. more

American Association Of Insurance

Services (AAIS)
The American Association of Insurance Services is an
advisory organization that develops insurance policy
forms and loss experience rating information. more

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is a type of life insurance that
guarantees payment of a death benefit during a
specified time period. more

Alliance of American Insurers (AAI)

The Alliance Of American Insurers is a coalition
consisting primarily of property-casualty insurance
carriers. more

Understanding Liability Insurance

Liability insurance provides the insured party with
protection against claims resulting from injuries and
damage to people and/or property. more

Actuarial Service
Actuarial service is one way corporations determine,
assess, and plan for the financial impact of risk.
Actuarial science is used to evaluate and predict
future payouts for insurance and other financial
industries. more

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