Insurance Business’s latest analysis – the 2024 IB+ Annual Financial Insights of Top US Insurance Businesses by Market Cap – and its accompanying report, offers an exclusive, data-driven window into the profitability divergence between top and lower-ranking public insurers. It also captures significant differences between the performance of property and casualty (P&C), health, and brokerage insurance business segments, amid broader industry turbulence.
Drawing from SEC filings, the new IB+ Annual Financial Insights of Top US Insurance Businesses by Market Cap and report tracks financial performance – including expenses, premiums, net earnings, diluted earnings per share and other financial markers – across 86 public US insurance providers from 2021 through 2024. The picture it paints contrasts scale and struggle, nominal growth and new costs, and topline expansion and true shareholder value.
Among the top 20 insurers by market capitalization, earned premiums rose 26% over three years to $32.1 billion. This figure significantly outpaced the 16% rise for that of the remaining 66 providers. But those gains were muted by costs: the top 20 providers’ average expenses soared 31%, dragging their total net earnings down by 14% . Lesser-ranked peers fared much worse under the comparable rise in expenses; their net earnings plunged by 36%.
Through net earnings decline, the top 20 publicly listed companies examined, which include the likes of UnitedHealth, Progressive, and Marsh & McLennan, consolidated their strength. In 2024, the top 20 providers took 75% of total net earnings made by examined 86 providers, up from 69% just three years prior.
With regard to segments, P&C players such as Progressive, Travelers, and Allstate weathered volatility well. Progressive posted a 154% rise in diluted earnings per share. Meanwhile, insurance brokerages like Arthur J. Gallagher and Brown & Brown emerged as quiet powerhouses buoyed by commission models and strategic agility. Brokerages produced earnings margins far surpassing their peers in other insurance business segments. Health insurers such as Cigna and Humana, for instance, struggled to translate impressive premium growth into profit, weighed down by rising compliance and care costs.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS), a conservative bellwether of shareholder health, tells the complete story. Despite aggregate earnings declines, the top 20’s EPS rose from $370 to $383.88 by 2024, underscoring disciplined capital management and a dramatic turnaround from intervening years.
Allstate led the field with a staggering 242% EPS jump. Others, like AIG and Prudential, experienced a decline in shareholder value amid structural shifts and steep losses.
Overall, these findings reveal a new look for leadership in the insurance market, as top providers claim a greater share of earnings during turbulent business seasons. As the sector braces for continued economic uncertainty, climate volatility, and digital disruption outlined in the full accompanying report, the 2024 IB+ Annual Financial Insights of Top US Insurance Businesses by Market Cap offers a vital roadmap to where 86 unique insurance providers stand.
For data that goes deeper into premiums, expenses, earnings, and EPS across each of the notable US insurers, the IB+ Annual Financial Insights of Top US Insurance Businesses by Market Cap and report is now live.
