10 Largest Insurance Companies in the World
Insurance is an enormous industry. Companies are ranked by all sorts of factors: total assets, market capitalization, premiums written, revenues, etc. Here is a recent report of ten of the world’s largest insurance companies (from AM Best or S&P Global, GlobalData, etc.) with a brief note as to how they reached this status in the different measures used.
Beinsure
Contents
| # | Company | Country | What Makes Them Big / Key Strengths | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allianz SE | Germany | Allianz leads as the insurance company with the highest total non-banking assets. They are repeatedly rated as the number one insurance company by assets. They have a strong global footprint in both individual and commercial life and non-life insurance, supported by established underwriting processes and diverse investment portfolios. | S&P Global (+3), Wikipedia (+3), Beinsure (+3) |
| 2 | Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. | USA | Known for its conglomerate business model and numerous insurance subsidiaries (GEICO, General Re, etc.). Berkshire’s large market capitalization and financial strength give it substantial leverage in underwriting and investment returns. | GlobalData (+2), |
| 3 | China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. | China | One of the largest life insurers globally by total assets and reserves. Its dominant position in the vast Chinese market enables it to provide a wide range of insurance products at unmatched scale. | – |
| 4 | Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. | China | A major player across several segments — life, property & casualty, health, and financial services. Consistently ranked among the top 5 insurers globally by asset size and one of Asia’s leading insurance brands. | Beinsure (+2), |
| 5 | Prudential Financial / Prudential plc | USA / UK | Renowned for expertise in life and health insurance, particularly in the U.S. Holds significant asset value and global presence. (Note: “Prudential” refers to separate entities in different jurisdictions.) | (+1) |
| 6 | AXA SE | France | Globally strong and well-balanced presence across Europe and emerging markets. Offers life, health, property, and casualty insurance along with a major asset management business. | GlobalData (+2), ADV Ratings (+2) |
| 7 | MetLife, Inc. | USA | A prominent life and health insurer with a long-standing history. Maintains a diversified investment portfolio and large policy reserves, ensuring financial stability and resilience. | – |
| 8 | Legal & General Group plc | United Kingdom | A major player in life insurance and pensions, with large reserves, investment capacity, and exposure to both retail and institutional markets. | – |
| 9 | Manulife Financial Corporation | Canada | Strong presence in Asia (especially Hong Kong and China) and North America. Operates as a hybrid group combining life insurance, wealth management, and asset management, aiding in risk diversification and growth. | – |
| 10 | Nippon Life Insurance Company | Japan | One of Asia’s largest life insurers, with substantial experience, large reserves, and significant market share. Japan’s aging population presents both unique challenges and growth opportunities for its life insurance sector. | – |
1.What Categorizes These Companies as “Largest”
- When assessing insurers, large has several meanings and these companies could rank among the largest in many of these categories:
- Total Assets/Assets Under Management – insurers must hold a considerable level of reserves and invest that inflow of premium.
- Liabilities / policy reserves (for life insurers) – the future obligations they have. A large life insurer will have significant liabilities.
S&P Global - Market Cap / Valuation – how the market is pricing the stock indicating market confidence in the business and the financial strength and growth of the business.
GlobalData - Written Premium / Revenues – how much they take in from the sale of insurance products and other financial products.
2.Obstacles and issues
The eight main insurance companies face similar obstacles and issues:
- Regulatory pressure– a number of countries (especially for life insurance) have new and increasing regulations on solvency, capital reserves, and risk provisions in addition to consumer protection.
- Demographic change – in developed countries like Japan and Europe, the growing aging population results in more claims (or payouts) and possibly, lesser new growth in life insurance policies.
- Interest rates and investment returns– the insurers invest the premium reserves and thus, investment returns matter. Low-interest rates reduce margins. Higher rates help but create risk.Car Insurance Hacks in USA
- Technological disruption, InsurTech (and more) – large incumbents that are significant writers of policies are increasing their investments in terms of digital platforms, data analytics in order to determine underwriting risk, telematics, artificial intelligence, etc. in order to remain competitive.
- Climate risk / natural disasters – especially property and casualty insurance; given the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, it is creating a considerable risk (and cost). The insurers likely need to price that risk accordingly, reinsure it, or simply withdraw from certain geographies.
3.The Global Significance
For these entities, global finance and economies care for more than their clients’ needs:
- They are major institutional investors: The reserves they have are invested across a range of investments including bonds, equities, real estate investment trusts, and infrastructure projects. What they invest in (or not) can have sway on the capital markets.
- Risk absorption: The insurance they provide, generally, is quite well spread across populations. In many countries, insurers provide resilience and economic efficiency against major disasters, health shocks, and the like.
- Innovation: Large insurers can invest in R&D, model behavioral risk, and provide many preventive services that often set the tone for the industry and providers; i.e., they can weather short-term losses.
- Cross-border transactions: Many of the large insurers work in many countries; policy changes in a major economy (i.e., China, US, EU) can have ramifications for lower-tier economies. And, they trade currencies and deal with policy risk (regulatory and political) as well.Insurance Cover Wegovy for Weight Loss
4.To summarize the information above,
The biggest insurers like Allianz, Berkshire Hathaway, China Life, Ping An, AXA, and others, do so not only based on the volume of assets they hold, but also how they have diversified their operations and broadened their reach around the world.
While there are good reasons as to why a firm should aspire to be large (e.g., scale, investment, brand), there also come challenges from large size (e.g., regulatory, demographic, climate).
The impact of trends (e.g., digital transformation, ESG (environment, social, governance) and risk profiles (e.g. pandemics, climate) helps shape a large insurer’s evolution.
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Q1. Which is the largest insurance company in the world by assets?
A1. Allianz
Q2. Where is Allianz SE headquartered?
A2. Germany
Q3. Which U.S. company owns GEICO and General Re?
A3. Berkshire
Q4. Which is China’s biggest life insurer?
A4. ChinaLife
Q5. Which Chinese group operates in insurance and financial services?
A5. PingAn