Weiss Figures Show “A+” Insurance Ratings Becoming Even MORE Exclusive

Last week, I wrote about the health insurance industry, outlining how safety and investment ratings can differ. Today, I would like to focus on the entire insurance industry and the top rated, safest insurance companies. One trend that’s clear: It’s becoming even tougher for insurers to get our highest, most exclusive rating!

As you can see, the majority of insurance ratings fall within the “B” through “D” range. Only a small group of insurers — 220 of them — are rated “B+” or higher. In fact, they represent only 6% of the entire industry. This is a notable drop from three years ago, when there were 349 recommended insurers (or 9.4%) at the higher end of our scale.

Now, let’s shift to the elite “A+” ratings to see who’s at the very top. Currently, there are only 20 insurance companies meriting this exclusive rating. You can see from this graph below that over the last three years, the overall trend is also negative. Indeed, we haven’t seen an increase in the total number of companies earning “A+” ratings since Q4 2015.

Which companies still merit this coveted grade? I used our Insurance Screener to identify them.

First, I filtered the Weiss Ratings universe to see only “A+” candidates. Then I further sorted them in descending order by total assets, added the domicile state column, and lastly, included the industry column to identify their major lines of business. Here is the complete list!

Below you’ll also find a list of the top 10 by asset size to give you some specific names. Life insurance companies took many of the top spots, though some property and casualty and health insurers are in there, too.

Bottom line: Over the last few years, the list of A+ insurers has shrunk — making this club even more exclusive. Things like business regulation, natural disasters, and the overall health of the economy can strongly influence the numbers on the insurers’ financial statements, which can further translate into lower safety ratings.

But whatever the case may be, we gather those numbers, run them through our insurance models, and give you an unbiased opinion. We are confident that an insurer on the recommended list is a safe choice for you.

So be sure to check your insurer’s rating on the Weiss Ratings website and add it to your Watchlist. That way we can let you know when there’s a change in rating.

Until next time,

Gavin Magor

Insurance Insights Edition, By Gavin Magor, Senior Financial Analyst Gavin has more than 30 years of international experience in credit-risk management, commercial lending and insurance, banking and stock analysis and holds an MBA. Gavin oversees the Weiss ratings process, developing the methodology for Weiss’ Sovereign Debt and Global Bank Ratings. Gavin has appeared on both radio and television, including ABC and NBC as an expert in insurance, bank and stock ratings and has been quoted by CNBC, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Reuters as well as several regional newspapers and trade media.