Insurance is both a business and a public service: a set of commercial firms that collectively create the financial plumbing of modern life. By late 2025 the industry remains dominated by a mixture of mutuals, public companies and diversified financial groups whose scale and capital strength enable them to underwrite national economies, invest pension assets and offer resilience against catastrophe. This article presents a careful, structured survey of the Top 20 global insurance companies in 2025: who they are, why they matter, how the ranking is determined, and what their scale implies for customers, markets and regulators.
Because the notion of “top” can be measured in many ways, this piece sets out a transparent methodology, draws on public 2024–2025 data where available, and explains the global trends that underpin the contemporary ranking. The objective is not merely to produce a list — it is to help readers understand what makes a large insurer truly global: assets under management, underwriting reach, product diversity, geographic balance and financial strength.
Below you will find (1) a short methodological note, (2) the ranked Top 20 for 2025 with concise profiles, (3) cross-cutting observations about scale and business models, (4) key risks and regulatory issues facing the largest players, and (5) concluding remarks on the outlook for the industry.
Methodology (how this list was compiled)
“Largest” insurers can be ranked by many metrics: gross written premiums, assets under management (AUM), total assets on the balance sheet, market capitalisation or net premiums written. For a global, multi-line insurer the most informative single metric is total assets under management/total consolidated assets, since this captures both the insurer’s underwriting scale and its investment responsibilities — the very assets that back policyholder promises.
This article therefore uses reported 2023–2024/early-2025 consolidated asset figures and corroborating industry rankings (AM Best, SWFI, specialist industry compilers and public financial statements) to assemble the Top 20 list presented below. Where a company’s position is sensitive to alternate measures (for example, Berkshire Hathaway’s enormous consolidated balance-sheet due to non-insurance holdings), the profile explains the nuance. The principal sources for balance-sheet based rankings include industry compendia and aggregators reporting 2024–2025 data.
A pragmatic caveat: exact order can vary depending on the cut-off date and whether holdings such as reinsurance subsidiaries, asset managers or banking operations are consolidated; the list here therefore reflects the most widely reported positions for 2025 and emphasises the economic significance of each group rather than a rigid numeric ordering.
The Top 20 global insurance companies in 2025 (by consolidated assets / scale)
- Allianz (Germany)
- Ping An Insurance (China)
- Berkshire Hathaway (United States)
- China Life Insurance (China)
- Prudential Financial / Prudential plc (split regional groups noted)
- AXA (France)
- MetLife (United States)
- Manulife Financial (Canada)
- AIA Group (Hong Kong / Asia)
- Nippon Life (Japan)
- Assicurazioni Generali (Italy)
- American International Group — AIG (United States)
- Life Insurance Corporation of India — LIC (India)
- Japan Post Insurance (Japan)
- CNP Assurances (France)
- Legal & General (United Kingdom)
- Zurich Insurance Group (Switzerland)
- Prudential plc (UK-origin, Asia-focused) / Prudential Financial (US) — placement clarified in the narrative
- Munich Re / ERGO Group (Germany)
- Chubb (United States)
Note: readers will see overlapping corporate family names in this list because major groups operate across life, property & casualty (P&C), reinsurance and asset management. The ranking above reflects consolidated scale and the practical global footprint each corporation manages. Supporting industry compilations and balance-sheet listings used in preparing this ranking are publicly reported across specialist industry sources.
Company-by-company profiles (concise but substantive)
Below each profile sketches the group’s scale, strategic positioning, core strengths and contemporary priorities in 2025. The emphasis is on global relevance rather than local product minutiae.
Allianz (Germany) — continental scale with global reach
Why it’s top: Allianz combines a vast insurance franchise with world-class asset management. It is consistently among the world leaders by consolidated assets and AUM, and benefits from a balanced mix of life, P&C, global corporate specialty and investment management operations.
Core strengths: Diversified revenues (life, health, P&C), leading commercial & specialty lines (through Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty), and powerful asset management platforms (Allianz Global Investors and PIMCO affiliations). Allianz’s capital base and Solvency II discipline give it exceptional resilience.
2025 priorities: Digital customer experiences, climate-linked underwriting (transition finance and catastrophe modelling), and expanding sustainable investment allocations.
Ping An Insurance (China) — technology-enabled scale
Why it matters: Ping An’s rise reflects China’s domestic market scale and the firm’s unique integration of insurance with fintech and healthtech. Its balance-sheet is enormous and it occupies a high place in global rankings by assets.
Core strengths: Extensive distribution (agent network plus digital platforms), vertical integration into healthcare and financial services, and data-driven underwriting.
2025 priorities: AI-driven health services, greater overseas asset deployments, and regulatory alignment with domestic reforms.
Berkshire Hathaway (United States) — the conglomerate with an insurance heart
Why it’s here: Berkshire’s insurance subsidiaries (notably GEICO and reinsurance operations) provide a substantial insurance float that Warren Buffett deploys as investment capital. The group’s tremendous consolidated assets place it among the very largest financial companies in the world.
Core strengths: Exceptional capital management via “float”, disciplined underwriting at subsidiaries, and long-term investment orientation.
2025 priorities: Maintaining underwriting profitability, deploying insurance float into high-quality investments, and succession planning.
China Life Insurance (China) — national champion with global implications
Why it’s here: China Life is one of the world’s largest life insurers by assets and policy count, reflecting the size of China’s domestic savings market. Its consolidated balance sheet sits among the largest globally.
Core strengths: Dominant domestic distribution, deep household penetration in mainland China and strong government-linked institutional relationships.
2025 priorities: Product modernisation, asset-liability management as interest rates evolve, and measured international expansion.
Prudential (split identity: Prudential Financial (US) and Prudential plc (UK/Asia)) — two major flows of capital and presence
Why it matters: The Prudential name now appears in distinct forms globally: Prudential Financial (US) is a large US-based life/retirement insurer, while Prudential plc (UK-based) has repositioned to focus on high-growth Asian and African markets following strategic restructurings. Together they represent substantial global insurance capacity and leadership in retirement solutions.
Core strengths: Retirement and annuity expertise (US), and high-growth distribution and micro-insurance capabilities (Asia and Africa).
2025 priorities: Scaling digital channels in Asia, improving retirement-solution penetration in developed markets and managing longevity risk.
AXA (France) — global diversified incumbent
Why it’s here: AXA’s multi-line European heritage, significant Asian operations, and global specialty capabilities place it solidly among the largest insurers worldwide. The group balances life, health, P&C, and asset management activity at scale.
Core strengths: European leadership, bancassurance distribution, and AXA XL (commercial and specialty) as a major global underwriting platform.
2025 priorities: Embedding climate risk assessment in underwriting, simplifying product ranges and boosting digital engagement.
MetLife (United States) — global life and employee benefits leader
Why it’s here: MetLife’s wide footprint in employee benefits, individual life and group coverage, and substantial investment portfolio make it a leading global insurer.
Core strengths: Large U.S. group benefits franchise, Asian expansion, and institutional retirement solutions.
2025 priorities: Enhancing digital claims, expanding group solutions in emerging markets, and adapting annuity offerings to post-pandemic retirement needs.
Manulife Financial (Canada) — Asia tilt, global investment scale
Why it matters: Manulife combines Canadian and Asian operations (notably in Hong Kong and mainland China) with strong asset management capabilities. Its balance sheet is large by global standards.
Core strengths: Cross-border distribution, bancassurance partnerships, and a substantial AUM base.
2025 priorities: Deepening presence in Southeast Asia, growing wealth management fees and managing interest-rate exposures.
AIA Group (Hong Kong/Asia) — Asia-focused life and health powerhouse
Why it’s here: AIA’s pure-play focus on the Asia-Pacific region and its massive agency network make it the leading publicly listed life insurer in Asia, with strong profitability and rapid VONB (value-of-new-business) growth.
Core strengths: Pan-Asian distribution, AIA Vitality (health/wellness ecosystem), and sizeable presence in China and Southeast Asia.
2025 priorities: Integrating digital health into core propositions, increasing penetration in underinsured segments and expanding bancassurance.
Nippon Life (Japan) — domestic giant with long-range investments
Why it’s here: Nippon Life is one of Japan’s largest life insurers with a huge asset base reflecting the country’s high private savings and large annuity markets.
Core strengths: Deep domestic reach, conservative asset allocation, and experience managing longevity risk.
2025 priorities: Managing low-yield environments, diversifying overseas investments and deepening retirement offerings.
Assicurazioni Generali (Italy) — continental European heavyweight
Why it matters: Generali is a leading pan-European insurer with diversified lines and a sizable AUM. It remains strategically important for European life and P&C markets.
Core strengths: Strong Italian and central European presence, robust bancassurance and direct channels.
2025 priorities: Digital distribution, product simplification and scaling asset-manager synergies.
American International Group (AIG, United States) — large-scale global specialty and legacy presence
Why it’s here: AIG’s historical breadth in commercial lines, specialty risk and reinsurance keeps it among the largest global insurers by premium and balance-sheet capacity even as it focuses on streamlining operations.
Core strengths: Global specialty lines, catastrophe modelling and risk engineering.
2025 priorities: Enhancing underwriting discipline, strengthening capital efficiency and expanding cyber and professional lines.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) — the giant of a populous nation
Why it matters: LIC is the dominant life insurer in India with immense policy count and a very large investment balance, reflecting India’s national savings. Its partial IPO in recent years has increased public visibility while preserving its social role.
Core strengths: Ubiquitous distribution, government-linked investments and brand trust across India.
2025 priorities: Modernising systems, improving product transparency and expanding bancassurance and digital channels.
Japan Post Insurance (Japan) — postal channel scale
Why it’s here: Japan Post Insurance’s national network (post office distribution) and vast policybook give it notable scale among global life insurers. Its balance sheet ranks it among the largest insurers in the world.
Core strengths: Nationwide distribution and deep governmental linkages.
2025 priorities: Portfolio repricing, digital customer journeys and regulatory adjustments.
CNP Assurances (France) — large continental life specialist
Why it matters: CNP is a major European life insurer with strong partnerships in France and Brazil; it manages significant life reserves and investment assets.
Core strengths: Bancassurance partnerships, predictable life cash flows and a robust investment book.
2025 priorities: Cross-border growth, digital partnerships and sustainable product innovation.
Legal & General (United Kingdom) — pensions, protection and longevity expertise
Why this company matters: Legal & General is a leading UK insurer and asset manager with particular strength in pension de-risking, annuities and retirement income solutions — sectors of growing global importance as populations age.
Core strengths: Pension buy-ins, buy-outs, lifetime mortgages and institutional asset management.
2025 priorities: Scaling liability-driven investing (LDI), green infrastructure investments, and retirement solutions for an ageing population.
Zurich Insurance Group (Switzerland) — global commercial & retail insurer
Why it’s here: Zurich combines developed-market retail insurance with strong commercial and multinational risk solutions; its balance sheet is among the larger European insurers.
Core strengths: Multinational accounts, SME and retail distribution, and strong claims management.
2025 priorities: Improving direct digital channels, pricing for climate exposure and enhancing multinational policy servicing.
Munich Re / ERGO Group (Germany) — reinsurance and primary insurance leadership
Why it matters: Munich Re is the world’s largest reinsurer by many measures and, taken with ERGO (its primary insurance arm), forms a major financial group that sits high in global asset rankings. Reinsurance capacity and specialised expertise make Munich Re pivotal for systemic resilience.
Core strengths: Reinsurance modelling, catastrophe analytics, and primary market reach via ERGO.
2025 priorities: Expanding parametric and cyber reinsurance products, and strengthening underwriting for climate volatility.
Chubb (United States / Global specialty) — large P&C and specialty insurer
Why it’s here: Chubb is a leading global P&C insurer with strengths in commercial lines, high-net-worth personal lines, and specialty risk. Its capitalisation and premium base place it among the world’s largest insurers.
Core strengths: Superior underwriting discipline, global broker relationships and robust claims service.
2025 priorities: Cyber insurance development, tailored property catastrophe solutions and scaled global underwriting platforms.
(Close contenders and sectoral nuance) — other major groups
Large institutions such as Aegon, Sun Life Financial, Tokio Marine, Prudential Financial (US) and Sun Life / Manulife siblings occupy proximate global positions and, depending on the metric (premiums written, AUM, market value), can appear interchangeably within top-20 ranges. Different industry surveys will swap these names by small rank changes; what matters for the reader is the concentrated economic scale and systemic importance of the top tier.
What the Top 20 tell us about global insurance structure in 2025
Scale, concentration and diversified franchises
The top 20 are not homogenous. Some are life-centric (China Life, Nippon Life, LIC), others are P&C-focused (Chubb, Allianz’s P&C arm), while a number combine both with large asset management subsidiaries (Allianz, AXA, Ping An). The concentration of assets in the top companies is a global phenomenon: the insurance sector’s capital-intensive nature and regulatory barriers produce high concentration at the top.
Geographic rebalancing — Asia’s rise
A striking structural change this decade is Asia’s weight in the ranking. Several Chinese and pan-Asian groups — Ping An, China Life, AIA and Manulife’s Asian operations — have expanded rapidly, reflecting demographic trends, rising middle-class savings and regulatory liberalisation that has allowed foreign and joint-venture players to gain scale. In short: Asia’s domestic markets now push groups into the upper echelons of global rankings.
Platform economics and the insurance-investment nexus
Large insurers are simultaneously asset managers. The “insurance float” (premiums held prior to claims) is an investment advantage. Groups with strong asset management arms (Allianz, AXA, Manulife, Prudential) therefore enjoy an earnings mix composed of underwriting margins plus investment returns — a dual earn model that amplifies scale but also links insurers to market volatility.
Specialisation vs. universalists
Some firms deliberately specialise (reinsurers such as Munich Re, specialty underwriters such as Chubb), while others pursue the universal model (Allianz, AXA). The market rewards both: specialisation yields superior risk selection and pricing power in niches, while universalists capture diversification benefits and cross-sell opportunities.
Key industry trends shaping the largest insurers in 2025
Digitalisation and data-driven underwriting
Large groups are investing heavily in telematics, health data ecosystems, and AI to make pricing more granular, detect fraud and automate claims. Ping An and insurers with large digital ecosystems are notable leaders.
Climate risk and catastrophe modelling
Insurers now price for more frequent extreme events and use parametric insurance, improved cat models and stronger reinsurance programmes. Reinsurers and primary insurers alike are recalibrating their catastrophe appetites.
Longevity and retirement solutions
Ageing populations in advanced economies increase demand for annuities and pension de-risking services. This is a central growth area for Legal & General, Allianz, Aegon and other specialists.
Regulatory capital discipline
Solvency II-style regimes in Europe and heightened supervision globally push insurers to strengthen capital buffers, which in turn influences product pricing and investment allocations.
ESG integration and sustainable finance
Top insurers have adopted net-zero commitments and are reallocating assets toward green infrastructure and sustainable bonds — a strategic shift with both reputational and financial implications.
Systemic risks and governance challenges for the largest players
Large insurers provide systemic financial functions and thus face governance scrutiny. Key issues include:
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Concentration risk: The largest groups’ exposures to specific asset classes (corporate debt, real estate) can amplify market shocks.
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Model risk and AI ethics: Reliance on machine learning for underwriting raises concerns about fairness, explainability and regulatory compliance.
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Climate transition risk: Underwriters must balance supporting low-carbon transition projects while managing near-term physical risks.
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Cyber and operational resilience: Large insurers’ digital platforms are attractive targets for cyber-attack; operational continuity is paramount.
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Cross-border regulation: Global groups must harmonise compliance across differing prudential frameworks and consumer-protection regimes.
Regulators increasingly require living wills, stronger recovery-planning and more public disclosure from the largest insurers — all aimed at preserving market stability.
What customers and intermediaries should know
- For retail customers: Scale matters for claims-paying ability, but personal service, product fit and transparent pricing are equally significant. Large insurers often offer the deepest networks for complex claims and have the capital to settle major losses.
- For brokers and corporate buyers: Large global groups provide multinational coverage and coordinated claims handling — a decisive advantage for cross-border corporates.
- For pension funds and institutional investors: insurer-managed asset pools present co-investment opportunities in infrastructure and private credit, though due diligence on asset-liability alignment is essential.
Regional differences within the Top 20: a quick comparative glance
- Europe: Allianz, AXA, Generali and Zurich combine regulatory rigor with strong capital markets access; the European market emphasises integrated risk-management and sustainability.
- North America: Berkshire, MetLife, Chubb and AIG highlight strong commercial underwriting, specialty lines and the economic centrality of US insurance markets.
- Asia: Ping An, China Life, AIA, Manulife (Asia operations) and Nippon Life reflect the region’s extraordinary growth potential in life and health insurance.
- Emerging markets: LIC (India) and large Latin American players (not explicitly in the narrow top 20) signal the importance of domestic savings and financial inclusion for future growth.
How the Top 20 are adapting their capital and investment strategies
Large insurers are shifting from purely bond-heavy portfolios to a more diversified allocation that includes infrastructure, private credit and green project finance. This reflects:
- The search for yield in a low-rate environment (where relevant).
- A desire to match long-dated liabilities with long-duration assets (in the case of annuities).
- ESG commitments directing flows to renewables and sustainable infrastructure.
Insurers with internal asset management (Allianz, AXA, Manulife) enjoy synergies, enabling bespoke liability-matching solutions and enhancing net investment income — a material component of profitability for life insurers.
Frequently asked questions about the list and rankings
Q: Are rankings by assets better than rankings by premiums?
A: Neither is perfect; assets capture the capacity to back claims and manage investments, while premiums measure underwriting activity and market share. This article focuses on consolidated assets as the primary comparator because assets directly reflect the size of commitments that back policyholder promises.
Q: Why do conglomerates like Berkshire Hathaway appear high in some lists?
A: Berkshire’s consolidated assets are enormous because the holding company includes operating companies outside insurance (railways, utilities). When considering only pure insurance comparators, some proprietary lists may adjust for non-insurance businesses.
Q: Will the Top 20 change quickly?
A: The upper tier is relatively stable because building the capital and distribution to rival today’s leaders is time-consuming. However, rapid growth in Asian markets, consolidation and major M&A can reshuffle mid-ranking positions over a few years.
Practical meaning of scale in insurance
The Top 20 global insurance companies in 2025 are institutions of extraordinary economic significance. Their consolidated balances and asset management roles make them central players in capital markets, in national recovery after catastrophe, and in the design of retirement systems. The ranking presented here — guided by consolidated asset scale and corroborated by industry compendia — reveals several enduring truths:
- Scale provides resilience: larger capital buffers and diversified income help weather shocks.
- Distribution matters: global reach, bancassurance, digital platforms and agents determine growth trajectories.
- Investment capability differentiates: insurers that manage large AUMs can improve returns and offer integrated solutions.
- Regulation and ESG will shape strategy: prudential regimes, climate policy and sustainable finance commitments are now central to strategic planning.
This article aimed to be both a snapshot of 2025 and a primer on why the ranking matters. For readers who advise clients, manage pensions, broker corporate coverage, or choose personal protection, understanding the scale, strengths and strategic direction of the industry’s largest firms is essential. The Top 20 are not merely the biggest names on the letterhead — they are the stewards of global financial resilience.