Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by Warren Buffett, has reported a significant improvement in its underwriting earnings for Q3 2025, generating $2.4 billion—up from $750 million in the same period last year. For the nine-month period ending 30 September 2025, the company achieved net underwriting earnings of $5.7 billion, slightly higher than the $5.6 billion posted during the same period in 2024. The results mark a return to profitability for both the reinsurance and primary insurance divisions, reversing the quarterly loss seen last year.
Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance businesses, including the Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group, and GEICO, all reported strong earnings for Q3 2025. The Reinsurance Group’s pre-tax underwriting earnings surged to $884 million, compared to a loss of $310 million in Q3 2024. This improvement was driven largely by a strong performance in property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance, which saw earnings of nearly $1.1 billion, more than offsetting a decline in life and health (L&H) reinsurance, which fell to $50 million from $98 million a year earlier.
For the nine-month period, pre-tax underwriting earnings for the reinsurance arm decreased slightly to $1.2 billion from $1.4 billion in 2024, primarily due to a reduction in P&C earnings, which totalled $2.178 billion (down from $2.191 billion in 2024). L&H earnings also declined to $172 million, down from $279 million in 2024.
Within P&C reinsurance, premiums written dropped by 5% year-on-year to $5.2 billion for Q3 2025, and by 6% to $16.3 billion for the nine months. The reduction in premiums was largely attributed to a decline in property business. Losses and loss adjustment expenses (LAE) for the quarter fell 18% to $2.7 billion, while for the nine-month period, they declined 4% to $9 billion. Berkshire reported that the cost of significant catastrophe events for the first nine months of 2025, including the Southern California wildfires in Q1 2025, amounted to $760 million.
In total, incurred losses from catastrophe events for the year-to-date period reached $1.1 billion, including the wildfires in California. Despite these losses, the company reported that overall P&C losses and expenses declined to $4.1 billion for Q3 2025, with a combined ratio improving to 79.4% from 97% a year earlier. For the nine-month period, total losses and expenses dropped to $13.3 billion, with the combined ratio improving slightly to 86% from 86.7% in 2024.
The L&H reinsurance business saw modest growth in premiums, which rose slightly to $1.3 billion for Q3 2025, up from $1.25 billion a year earlier. For the nine months, premiums increased to $3.9 billion from $3.7 billion. However, underwriting earnings for the L&H business declined in both periods, primarily due to weaker performance in US life business.
Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group also reported strong performance in its retroactive reinsurance, periodic payment annuity, and variable annuity businesses. For the nine-month period, the liability for unpaid losses and LAE for retroactive reinsurance contracts declined by $1.1 billion to $31.3 billion.
Turning to the Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group, pre-tax underwriting earnings for Q3 2025 totalled $506 million, a significant recovery from a loss of $689 million in Q3 2024. For the nine-month period, underwriting earnings reached $425 million, compared with $76 million for the same period in 2024. Premiums written increased by 4% to $5.3 billion in Q3, while for the nine months, premiums were flat at $14.5 billion. The rise in premiums was driven by growth in MedPro, BHHC, NICO Primary, BH Direct, and USLI.
Losses and LAE for the Primary Group decreased by 30% to $2.9 billion for Q3 2025 and by 5% to $9.5 billion for the nine-month period. The decline in Q3 was attributed to a reduction in ultimate loss estimates for prior accident years’ claims by $190 million. For the nine-month period, prior accident years’ claims estimates rose by $211 million.
For the quarter, total losses and expenses for the Primary Group fell to $4.2 billion, and the combined ratio improved dramatically to 89.3%, compared to 114.7% in Q3 2024. For the nine-month period, total losses and expenses dropped to $13.5 billion, with a combined ratio of 97%, a slight improvement from the 99.5% recorded in the same period of 2024.
At GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway’s major property and casualty insurer, pre-tax underwriting earnings fell to $1.8 billion in Q3 2025, down from $2 billion a year earlier. For the nine months, pre-tax underwriting earnings were relatively flat at $5.8 billion. Premiums written rose by 5% to $11.7 billion for the quarter, and by 6% to $34.3 billion for the nine months, driven by an increase in policies-in-force.
GEICO’s losses and LAE increased by 5% to over $8 billion for Q3 2025, and by 3% to $23.4 billion for the nine months. The firm explained that the decline in loss ratio for the year-to-date period was due to higher average earned premiums per policy, lower claims frequencies, lower catastrophe losses, and favourable development of prior accident years’ claims estimates, which were partially offset by increases in average claims severities.
Across the group, net insurance investment income fell to $3.2 billion for Q3 2025, compared to $3.7 billion for the same period in 2024. For the nine months, investment income reached $9.4 billion, down from $9.6 billion in 2024.
As of 30 September 2025, Berkshire Hathaway reported that its float had increased to $176 billion, up from $171 billion at the end of December 2024.