Teardown

Insurance / Global specialty & commercial P&C · Deep dive

American International Group, Inc.

~$39B-market-cap, 107-year-old global specialty and commercial P&C insurer that survived the largest corporate bailout in US history, spent a decade shedding assets to shrink into shape, and finally hit a sub-90 combined ratio under Peter Zaffino — only to arrive at the start of a commercial P&C softening cycle with a flagship Lexington E&S property book in retreat, Personal Insurance down 12% in FY2025, an 11.1% core ROE that still trails Travelers (19%) and Chubb by half, and an untested broker-background CEO (Eric Andersen, ex-Aon) taking over mid-2026.

at risk

A 107-year-old global specialty P&C writer that still earns an 11.1% ROE versus Chubb and Travelers at 18-25%, is cutting its flagship Lexington E&S property book as the market softens, has shed ~40% of its workforce since 2021, just handed the CEO seat to a broker (not an underwriter) going into a softening cycle, and had to buy a 35% stake in Convex because it could not re-build specialty capacity organically.

My take

HQ
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
Founded
1919 (American Asiatic Underwriters, Shanghai); AIG holding company incorporated 1967; NYSE listing 1984
Ownership
Public (NYSE: AIG)
Funding
Publicly traded — market cap ~$39B as of Sep 2026 ($74.42 share price, 522.9M shares outstanding; stocktitan, Sep 2026)
Valuation
~$39B equity market cap; book value per share $76.44 and adjusted book value per share $78.02 at 31 December 2025; core operating book value $69.12 (AIG FY2025 earnings release, 10 February 2026)
Revenue
FY2025 General Insurance net premiums written $23.7B (down 1% reported, up 2% comparable), combined ratio 90.1%, adjusted after-tax EPS $7.09 (+43% Y/Y), $6.8B returned to shareholders ($5.8B buybacks + $1.0B dividends); Q2 2026 NPW $7.5B (+9%), combined ratio 89.0%, underwriting income $686M (+10%), adjusted EPS $2.00, core operating ROE 11.1% (AIG Q2 2026 earnings release, 6 August 2026)
Headcount
~22,100 (AIG 10-K FY2025; down from ~36,600 at year-end 2021 and ~116,000 at the 2008 peak)
Screen
Public incumbent >$10B EV — ~$39B market cap, $23.7B FY2025 General Insurance NPW, ~$550B total assets historically before Corebridge deconsolidation
Published
2026-09-30
Web
www.aig.com
Elsewhere
LinkedIn · Crunchbase

Founders and leadership

  • Cornelius Vander Starr Founder (1919, American Asiatic Underwriters in Shanghai); AIG legacy founder, died 1968

    California-born entrepreneur who went to Shanghai in 1919 at age 27 and founded American Asiatic Underwriters above a small office on Nanking Road to sell marine and fire insurance to Chinese merchants. Expanded across Asia, moved HQ to New York in 1939 ahead of World War II, built a worldwide insurance group through acquisitions and native-language distribution. Died 1968; his C.V. Starr & Co. survives as a specialty insurer / Starr Companies run by Hank Greenberg after Greenberg's 2005 AIG exit.

  • Maurice R. (Hank) Greenberg CEO 1967–2005 — the architect of the modern AIG empire; ousted March 2005 amid Spitzer accounting probe

    Hired by Starr in 1960 to develop international accident & health; became president in 1967 and incorporated the AIG holding company that year. Took AIG public in 1969, listed on NYSE in 1984. Over 38 years built AIG into a ~$180B market-cap global insurance group with ~130-country footprint. Forced out March 2005 by board under pressure from NY AG Eliot Spitzer; AIG restated 2000-2004 financials for ~$3.9B of accounting errors. Now runs Starr Insurance (private; AIG's root entity).

  • Peter S. Zaffino Chairman & CEO (CEO since 1 March 2021; Chairman since 1 January 2022); transitioning to Executive Chair mid-2026

    BA Economics Boston College 1989 (collegiate soccer goalkeeper), MBA Finance NYU Stern. Early career at The Hartford, then a GE Capital alternative-risk portfolio company. Joined Guy Carpenter (Marsh & McLennan's reinsurance broker) in 2001; CEO February 2008. Named President & CEO of Marsh in April 2011; Chairman of MMC Risk & Insurance Services in 2015. Recruited by Brian Duperreault to AIG as Global COO in August 2017, immediately took CEO of General Insurance in September 2017, promoted to President 1 January 2020, succeeded Duperreault as CEO 1 March 2021 and became Chair 1 January 2022. His five-year CEO run drove the AIG 200 restructuring, Corebridge spin, Validus Re sale, headcount cut from ~36,600 to ~22,100, and sub-90 combined ratio.

  • Eric M. Andersen President & CEO-elect (effective 16 February 2026); CEO expected to assume role after 1 June 2026

    Nearly three-decade Aon career. President of Aon plc 2020–2025 (during which Aon market cap grew from ~$35B to ~$85B); previously CEO of Aon Benfield (world's largest reinsurance broker) and CEO of Aon Risk Solutions Americas. Member of Aon Executive Committee and strategic advisor through 2025. First non-underwriter in the CEO seat at AIG in decades — a broker-background appointment that signals AIG is prioritising distribution relationships over underwriting craft as the hard market turns.

  • Sabra R. Purtill Executive Vice President & CFO (permanent since June 2023)

    Prior CFO at Travelers (interim) and head of IR / financial planning at Hartford Financial Services. Named permanent AIG CFO June 2023 following the death of Shane Fitzsimons from brain cancer.

Snapshot

American International Group is the global specialty and commercial P&C survivor of the 2008 financial crisis — recipient of the single largest corporate bailout in US history ($182B of Federal Reserve and Treasury commitments) — that spent 17 years dismantling itself to repay the government. FY2025 General Insurance NPW of $23.7B printed a 90.1% combined ratio; Q2 2026 added 89.0% CR, 11.1% core operating ROE and $686M of underwriting income on $7.5B of NPW — unthinkable in 2017 but still well below Travelers (24.9% core ROE) and Chubb (~18%) (AIG Q2 2026 release, 6 August 2026). Peter Zaffino, architect of the five-year turnaround, hands the CEO seat mid-2026 to Eric Andersen (ex-president of Aon, first broker-background chief AIG has had in modern memory) exactly as the commercial P&C hard market inflects to softening and AIG is already cutting its flagship Lexington E&S property book.

Founding story

AIG began in 1919 above a Nanking Road office in Shanghai, where 27-year-old Californian Cornelius Vander Starr opened American Asiatic Underwriters to sell marine and fire insurance to Chinese merchants in languages Western incumbents refused to learn. Starr moved HQ to New York in 1939, hired Maurice “Hank” Greenberg in 1960, and in 1967 incorporated the AIG holding company with Greenberg as president. Greenberg’s 38-year reign (1967-2005) built the modern company — public 1969, NYSE 1984, American General acquired for $23B in 2001. It ended March 2005 when NY AG Eliot Spitzer forced Greenberg out over finite-reinsurance accounting; AIG restated 2000-2004 financials for ~$3.9B. Worse followed: AIG Financial Products, a London unit, had written ~$500B of credit default swaps on mortgage securities. On 16 September 2008 the Federal Reserve authorised an $85B emergency secured loan; ultimate commitments reached ~$182B and the US government took 79.9% of the equity. Robert Benmosche (2009-2014) sold AIA ($20.5B HK IPO, October 2010) and ALICO (MetLife, $16.2B, November 2010) to repay. Treasury exited 11 December 2012 with a $22.7B taxpayer gain. Hancock (2014-2017), Duperreault (2017-2021) and Zaffino (2021-mid 2026) executed the operational cleanup.

How it works

AIG today is one segment plus a legacy — General Insurance plus (through May 2026) a declining Corebridge equity stake. General Insurance underwrites commercial and specialty P&C through two pillars: Global Commercial (NA + International = $17.4B FY2025 NPW, +4%) and Global Personal (= $6.3B FY2025 NPW, -12%). Global Commercial contains US retail and excess casualty, financial lines (D&O, E&O, cyber), construction, aerospace, marine, energy, and the Lexington E&S platform (non-admitted property/casualty for hard-to-place risks). Global Personal is HNW personal lines (Private Client Group), warranty, legacy A&H.

Underwriting is paired with a ~$70B+ investment portfolio. Output: FY2025 CR 90.1% (expense 31.1%, loss 59.0%) and Q2 2026 CR 89.0% — driven by portfolio pruning, pricing discipline, reinsurance restructuring (the 2017 Berkshire ADC and 2023 Validus Re sale) and operational cuts that took headcount from ~36,600 at year-end 2021 to ~22,100 at year-end 2025 (AIG 10-K FY2025). Reinsurance now runs through a smaller core set plus the January 2026 Convex quota share — part of the October 2025 $2.1B 35% equity stake in Convex (plus $646M for 9.9% of Convex’s majority owner Onex). The admission underneath: AIG could not match Convex’s underwriting bench on its own.

Product and business overview

Global Commercial — North America. Lexington Insurance (US E&S flagship), Western World, Validus Specialty, Glatfelter. Lines: excess casualty, umbrella, financial lines (public/private D&O, EPL, professional liability, cyber), construction, energy, marine, aerospace, environmental, Programs / MGA.

Global Commercial — International. AIG Europe (Luxembourg-domiciled post-Brexit), AIG UK, AIG Japan, APAC, LatAm, Middle East.

Global Personal. Private Client Select (HNW homeowners / auto / umbrella / valuables / yacht), Accident & Health, Warranty.

Investments. ~$70B GI portfolio; minority PineBridge Investments. Zero Corebridge post-May 2026 exit.

Business model and pricing

AIG books NPW as cash underwriting commitment and recognises net earned premium as policies age. CR = (loss + LAE + expense) / premium earned; 89.0% means 11 cents of underwriting profit per premium dollar. Add after-tax NII (~$3.5B FY2025 GI-level) and the result is the 11.1% core operating ROE.

Pricing is renewal-driven. In 2026, NA retail casualty is still +double-digit, excess casualty mid-teens, but property is softening — AIG said Q2 2026 that Lexington property retention fell 9%, driving a >3-point drag on NA premium growth. First clear sign AIG’s largest specialty engine is shrinking. Capital return: $6.8B in FY2025 ($5.8B buybacks + $1.0B dividends) against ~$3.7B GAAP net income — return greater than earnings, funded by Corebridge sell-down and Validus proceeds. Buyback pace moderates in 2026 ($519M Q1, $0.50/qtr dividend) now that the Corebridge cash spigot is empty.

Traction over time

MetricFY2021FY2022FY2023FY2024FY2025Q2 2026
GI net premiums written$24.5B$25.2B$23.9B$23.9B$23.7B$7.5B Q2
GI combined ratio95.8%92.4%90.5%91.8%90.1%89.0%
GI expense ratio32.9%32.2%31.9%32.0%31.1%30.7% TTM
Adjusted EPS$3.94$5.17$6.68$4.95$7.09$2.00 Q2
Core operating ROE7.3%9.4%9.1%7.9%11.1%11.1%
Capital returned$7.4B$7.4B$6.0B$8.1B$6.8B~$500M Q2
Headcount~36,600~26,200~25,200~22,200~22,100n/a
Corebridge staken/a~77%~65%~52%10.1%0% (May 2026)

Premiums flat since 2022; margin genuinely improved; equity base shrunk through buybacks; ROE lifted from the 7s to 11, above the 10% self-imposed target but below the 18-25% peers achieve.

Market analysis

Global commercial & specialty P&C is ~$900B of direct premiums (Swiss Re sigma, 2025); AIG’s $17.4B Global Commercial implies ~2% share. US E&S specifically is ~$120B growing low double-digit (S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2024), but 2026 is the first softening-cycle inflection in five years — CIAB’s Q4 2025 index was the softest since 2017, property rates negative on large accounts (Insurance Journal, 25 February 2026). Structural forces: Bermuda / London capital influx (Convex, Vantage, Inigo, Ariel) competing for renewals; social inflation keeping casualty firm; climate volatility keeping property reinsurance expensive.

Competitive intel

Chubb — ~3x AIG’s market cap, ~87% CR, ~18% ROE. Owns HNW personal (Masterpiece). Overlaps large-account US commercial, financial lines, specialty.

Travelers — ~$65B cap, more domestic, independent-agency distribution AIG lacks. 83.6% CR, 24.9% core ROE (TRV 8-K, 15 July 2026). The 14-point ROE gap says AIG’s turnaround leaves it second tier.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty — launched 2013, now ~$10B+ GWP. Hires aggressively from AIG; Berkshire also reinsures AIG’s own legacy casualty via the 2017 $9.8B ADC.

Convex / Fairfax / Lancashire / Ariel / Beazley / Hiscox — Bermuda-and-London specialty cohort attacking the same E&S / specialty wedge. AIG’s October 2025 35% Convex stake is strategically revealing.

Allianz AGCS / Zurich / Munich Re / Liberty Mutual Specialty — multi-line internationals with capital bases AIG cannot match post-shrink. Zurich bought AIG’s Travel Guard for $600M in 2022.

Lloyd’s syndicates and tech MGAs (Coalition, At-Bay, Resilience, Vouch) — attacking flows AIG historically owned in cyber and financial lines.

History and evolution

What people say

The case for. Sell-side consensus credits Zaffino with the most credible P&C turnaround of the decade: CR compressed ~600 bps from 2019, expense ratio from ~37% to 31.1%, ~$30B capital returned since 2021. Insurance Insider called the Zaffino tenure “closing the gap with peers,” succeeding where Hancock and Duperreault stumbled (Insurance Insider US, 2025). Financial-lines (D&O, E&O) and marine franchises remain top-tier globally.

The complaints. Three themes. First, broker criticism of post-AIG 200 service: the ~36,600→~22,100 headcount cut took institutional underwriting and claims knowledge with it; brokers tell trade press Chubb, BHSI and Fairfax now win on service where AIG once owned it. Second, Glassdoor shows persistent complaints about layoffs, stagnant pay, offshoring and management churn (one widely-circulated post: “Layoffs for next 3 years — 23% of mgmt being let go”). Third, policyholder sites carry sustained complaints on AIG warranty / travel / life claims handling; bailout-era brand damage still shows in retail sentiment on products AIG has since sold.

Outlook: well positioned or at risk?

At-risk. The verdict is close, but the rubric is strict: a 2+ documented-condition threshold triggers at-risk, and AIG shows at least three.

Condition 1 — flat/declining organic growth. GI NPW was $23.7B in FY2025, down 1% reported, flat with FY2023/FY2024 ($23.9B each). Global Personal NPW dropped 12% in FY2025. Lexington E&S property retention down 9% in Q2 2026. Headline Q2 2026 +9% NPW growth came from the new Convex quota share — ex-Convex, GI is barely growing into a softening market (CIAB Q4 2025 — softest since 2017).

Condition 2 — named funded challengers AIG cannot match organically. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty (hiring from AIG; Berkshire also reinsures AIG’s own legacy casualty via the 2017 $9.8B ADC); Convex (AIG paid $2.1B for 35% in October 2025 because it couldn’t rebuild the specialty bench); Fairfax, Lancashire, Ariel, Hiscox, Beazley; Coalition, At-Bay, Resilience in cyber. The Convex transaction is the most honest data point — AIG is a buyer of specialty capacity, not a producer.

Condition 3 — margins from distribution lock-in, not product edge. AIG’s 11.1% core operating ROE vs. Travelers 24.9% and Chubb ~18%. AIG trades at ~1.0x book vs. Travelers ~2.1x and Chubb ~1.6x. The structural ROE gap after a full-cycle turnaround says remaining margin reflects global distribution and the Lexington/financial-lines franchises more than an underwriting edge peers lack.

Timing is unfortunate: Zaffino is handing off to Andersen, a broker-trained leader with no personal underwriting P&L record, in month one of a softening cycle. The defensive counter is real — ~$39B market cap, expense base trending to sub-30%, Convex stake adds optionality — but it is defensive, not offensive. Well-positioned requires a defence that compounds; AIG’s compounds the clean-up.

How to attack it

A seed-stage attacker cannot replace AIG at the top of a global commercial tower. The attackable surfaces are narrower.

The specialty-MGA-on-broker-rails wedge. Coalition (cyber), At-Bay (cyber), Vouch (startup D&O/E&O), Resilience and the Lloyd’s-rail MGAs have shown that a founder-led specialty MGA with (a) proprietary data, (b) tight class-of-business focus and (c) direct relationships with Marsh / Aon / Gallagher production brokers can bleed AIG in categories like cyber, D&O for private tech, SPAC/de-SPAC D&O, construction wrap, environmental, parametric property. AIG’s response time inside the restructured organisation is slow — AIG 200 cost cuts removed layers of local underwriting authority Starr spent 60 years building. A seed-funded MGA can quote faster, bind faster and pay brokers more because it rides a reinsurer’s balance sheet rather than carrying it.

The embedded-cyber wedge. AIG’s cyber book is ~$1-2B GWP written through brokers. Coalition reached ~$1B run-rate GWP in five years by bundling continuous security monitoring with coverage. The next version is embedded — SaaS vendors (Snowflake, HubSpot, Databricks) selling cyber coverage attached at the account level. AIG cannot replicate through brokers.

The parametric specialty wedge. Weather, cyber BI, cat property, event cancellation. AIG writes almost no parametric; Hiscox and insurtechs (FloodFlash, Arbol, Descartes Underwriting, Jumpstart) are growing fast. Capital-efficient, data-native, direct or broker-distributed.

Weaknesses to exploit. (1) Lexington property retention down 9% in Q2 2026 — AIG is yielding share and Convex/Lancashire/Vantage are taking it. (2) The Convex 35% stake is an explicit admission AIG cannot organically rebuild. (3) CEO transition to a broker-background leader will slow underwriting decision-making exactly when the market needs it fast (CNBC, 6 January 2026). (4) Reserve legacy: the 2017 Berkshire ADC covers only pre-2016 reserves; social inflation on 2016+ long-tail casualty is a live concern. (5) Culture: Glassdoor pay-stagnation and layoff-fatigue themes — the bench AIG lost to BHSI, Fairfax and Convex is not coming back.

Adjacent-segment play

The AIG core — global specialty / commercial P&C balance-sheet underwriting — does not generalise down-market or up-market easily, and that is the problem.

Down-market SMB. AIG has repeatedly exited SMB (Travel Guard to Zurich 2022; personal lines contracting). Mass-market unit economics destroy a global-specialty cost base. The attacker opportunity is tech-enabled embedded SMB specialty — Vouch (D&O/E&O for startups), Coalition for mid-market cyber. AIG cannot cost-structure its way in; Chubb partially succeeded via SmallBusiness.com; AIG has not.

Up-market reinsurance. AIG explicitly exited this in November 2023 by selling Validus Re to RenaissanceRe for $3.3B. The adjacent play — a specialty reinsurer in gaps RenRe/Everest/Munich Re leave open — exists (Vantage Risk, Inigo, Convex) and is capital-gated.

Adjacent geography. AIG retains strong Japan and APAC commercial platforms (what remains of the Starr Asian heritage). A Japan-specialty MGA or Resilience-style cyber platform in Asia can position as the modern alternative.

Adjacent value prop — risk advisory bundled with capacity. The Coalition model (security monitoring + coverage) and Resilience model (cyber-posture-as-service + coverage) show that the next generation of specialty insurance is a service company that happens to carry capacity. AIG’s cost base, broker channel conflict and underwriting culture make this hard to replicate; Chubb has acquired its way around parts, AIG mostly has not.

The honest read: the wedges that could attack AIG are real but mostly have a seed-funded occupant. Clearest open space is specialty MGA capacity for emerging risks (climate parametric, AI-liability, embedded data-breach, deepfake-fraud warranty) on reinsurer balance sheets — venture-fundable but capital-light rather than venture-breakout.

Sources and further reading

Capital history

DateRoundAmountValuationLead(s)
1919 American Asiatic Underwriters founded in Shanghai by Cornelius Vander Starr — marine and fire insurance for Chinese merchants n/a — bootstrap n/a C.V. Starr
1926 Starr opens first US office (American International Underwriters Corporation) n/a n/a Starr
1939 HQ relocated from Shanghai to New York City ahead of WWII n/a n/a Starr
1967 American International Group, Inc. incorporated as the umbrella holding company; Hank Greenberg becomes president n/a n/a C.V. Starr / Greenberg
1969 AIG goes public (over-the-counter) n/a n/a AIG board
1984 AIG listed on New York Stock Exchange under ticker AIG n/a n/a NYSE listing
2001-08 AIG acquires American General Corporation (one of largest US life insurers) — $23B stock deal; built the life & retirement footprint later carved out as Corebridge ~$23B stock n/a AIG / Greenberg
2005-03 Hank Greenberg ousted by board under NY AG Eliot Spitzer accounting probe; AIG restates 2000-2004 financials for ~$3.9B of errors. Martin Sullivan appointed CEO n/a — governance crisis n/a AIG board
2008-09-16 Federal Reserve authorises $85B emergency secured loan to prevent AIG collapse driven by AIG Financial Products credit-default-swap book; subsequent commitments total ~$182B through Treasury TARP, Federal Reserve, and Maiden Lane facilities. US Treasury takes 79.9% equity stake ~$182B commitment US govt effectively owned the company Federal Reserve / US Treasury
2009-08 Robert Benmosche hired as CEO to execute turnaround and asset sales n/a — leadership n/a AIG board
2010-11 AIG sells American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) to MetLife $16.2B n/a MetLife
2010-10 AIA Group IPO on Hong Kong Stock Exchange — the Asia life operation Starr had built $20.5B IPO (largest ever at the time) ~$30B initial market cap HKEx listing
2012-12-11 US Treasury completes final AIG common-stock sale; Treasury / Federal Reserve recover ~$205B in total — a $22.7B positive return to taxpayers on the ~$182B of commitments n/a — exit n/a US Treasury
2017-01 AIG enters $9.8B adverse-development reinsurance contract with Berkshire Hathaway's National Indemnity — Berkshire takes 80% of ~$25B of US long-tail commercial casualty reserves on 2015-and-prior accident years, with $20B aggregate limit. Signals the depth of AIG's underwriting legacy problem $9.8B premium / $20B limit n/a Berkshire Hathaway / National Indemnity
2017-05 Brian Duperreault appointed CEO (ex-Marsh McLennan, ex-ACE, ex-Hamilton Insurance) — recruits Peter Zaffino from MMC the same year n/a — leadership n/a AIG board
2017-09 FSOC removes AIG from the 'too-big-to-fail' / SIFI designation list n/a — regulatory n/a FSOC
2021-03-01 Peter Zaffino succeeds Duperreault as CEO; announces AIG 200 restructuring programme targeting operational modernisation and expense reduction n/a — leadership n/a AIG board
2022-09-15 Corebridge Financial IPO on NYSE — carve-out of AIG life & retirement; AIG retains ~77% initial stake ~$1.68B IPO proceeds (largest US IPO of 2022) ~$13.5B initial Corebridge market cap Morgan Stanley / JPMorgan / Piper Sandler
2022-04 AIG completes sale of Travel Guard personal travel insurance & assistance business to Zurich Insurance Group ~$600M cash n/a Zurich
2023-11-01 RenaissanceRe completes acquisition of Validus Re (AIG's traditional reinsurance platform) — AIG exits assumed reinsurance to focus on primary specialty / commercial $3.3B cash + stock n/a RenaissanceRe Holdings
2024-FY to 2025 Progressive sell-down of Corebridge stake through 2024-2025 via secondary offerings; AIG's stake dropped to ~52% end-2024, ~22% mid-2025, 10.1% at end-2025 after ~$1B of Q4 2025 sales cumulative multi-billion n/a Secondary market
2025-01 Los Angeles wildfires (Palisades, Eaton, Hughes) — AIG Q1 2026 catastrophe charges reported at $180M (3.0 loss ratio points) vs. $525M (9.1 points) Y/Y — partly offset by reinsurance; peers e.g. Travelers took $1.7B pre-tax ~$180M CAT n/a n/a
2025-10-30 AIG announces $2.1B purchase of a 35% equity stake in Convex Group (Bermuda specialty) and $646M for 9.9% of Onex Corp (asset manager; Onex holds 63% of Convex post-deal); includes AIG quota-share of Convex underwriting from 1 January 2026 and $2B of Onex-managed fund commitments over three years $2.75B combined ($2.1B Convex + $646M Onex) implies ~$6B Convex valuation AIG / Onex / Convex
2025-FY (year ended 31 December 2025) FY2025: General Insurance NPW $23.7B (-1% reported, +2% comparable); combined ratio 90.1%; adjusted EPS $7.09 (+43%); Global Commercial NPW $17.4B (+4%), Global Personal NPW $6.3B (-12%); expense ratio 31.1%; $6.8B returned to shareholders; book value per share $76.44 (AIG Q4 2025 earnings release, 10 February 2026) n/a n/a n/a
2026-01-06 AIG announces Zaffino transitions to Executive Chair mid-2026; Eric Andersen (ex-President of Aon) joins as President & CEO-elect effective 16 February 2026, assumes CEO after 1 June 2026 n/a — succession n/a AIG board
2026-05-06 AIG agrees to sell final ~25M shares of Corebridge Financial — exits the stake entirely; closes a four-year unwind of the life & retirement operation $710M net proceeds n/a Secondary
2026-Q2 (quarter ended 30 June 2026) Q2 2026 results — NPW $7.5B (+9% reported, boosted by Convex quota share); combined ratio 89.0% (vs. 89.3% Y/Y); accident-year CR as adjusted 88.1%; underwriting income $686M (+10%); PYD favourable $145M; CAT losses $210M (3.4 pts) incl. $75M Middle East conflict; adjusted EPS $2.00 (+10%); core operating ROE 11.1%; trailing-12-month GI expense ratio 30.7% (target sub-30% for FY2027); Lexington E&S property retention down 9% in Q2 (AIG 8-K / Insurance Journal, 7 August 2026) n/a n/a n/a

Investors / owners: Public float. Top institutional holders (2026): Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Capital Group, Wellington, JPMorgan Asset Management, US Treasury / Federal Reserve — held up to 92% of AIG common equity 2008-2012; fully exited December 2012 with $22.7B taxpayer gain, Historical: Starr International Company (SICO) and C.V. Starr & Co. — Greenberg-era holding vehicles; Greenberg sued AIG for 2008 bailout dilution and won a technical judgment but no damages in 2015

Competitive set

  • Chubb Limited (CB) — NYSE: CB. ~$130B+ market cap. The clear #1 global specialty / commercial P&C franchise post the 2016 ACE-Chubb merger; FY2025 combined ratio ~87% and ROE ~18%. Dominates middle-market, high-net-worth personal (Chubb Masterpiece) and global specialty — the segments AIG considers home. The direct peer AIG benchmarks against, and consistently loses the comparison to on margin and growth.
  • The Travelers Companies (TRV) — NYSE: TRV. ~$65B market cap. 83.6% Q2 2026 combined ratio, 24.9% core ROE — a cleaner, more domestic version of what AIG wants to be. Dow component. Independent-agency distribution moat in US middle-market commercial that AIG lacks.
  • Berkshire Hathaway Specialty / National Indemnity — Launched 2013 inside Berkshire. Scaled to ~$10B+ GWP writing E&S, middle-market and specialty with Berkshire's AAA balance sheet. Hired aggressively from AIG and ACE/Chubb. Berkshire also reinsures AIG's own legacy casualty book via the 2017 $9.8B ADC — a structural reminder that AIG's old reserves are not AIG's problem any more only because Berkshire bought them.
  • Zurich Insurance Group (ZURN.SW) — SIX: ZURN. ~$80B market cap global multi-line; direct AIG peer in commercial / specialty internationally. Bought AIG's Travel Guard book for $600M in 2022 — a representative example of AIG shedding scope while Zurich adds it.
  • Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty / Allianz Commercial — Division of Allianz (ETR: ALV). European multinational commercial / specialty writer, directly overlaps AIG's international large-account business.
  • Munich Re / Ergo — Global reinsurance plus primary specialty. Owns Hartford Steam Boiler. Capital base dwarfs AIG's.
  • The Hartford Financial Services (HIG) — NYSE: HIG. Small-commercial specialist that overlaps AIG in middle-market. Trades at a premium multiple to AIG.
  • Liberty Mutual / Nationwide — Diversified US mutuals — large commercial and personal, overlaps with AIG at the middle-market.
  • Fairfax Financial (FFH) — TSX: FFH. ~$40B market cap. Prem Watsa's Toronto-based specialty insurer / holding company with Odyssey Re, Allied World, Crum & Forster, Zenith National. Grown aggressively through M&A; attacks AIG on US specialty / E&S and international.
  • Convex Group (private; AIG now 35% owner) — Bermuda specialty, founded 2019 by Stephen Catlin and Paul Brand. Scaled to ~$5B GWP. AIG paid $2.1B in October 2025 for 35% — an admission AIG couldn't build or retain the specialty bench Convex has. Also implies AIG needs preferred access to Convex paper to fill underwriting capacity it does not have organically.
  • Lancashire Holdings (LRE.L) — London: LRE. ~$2B market cap. Bermuda-structured specialty writer attacking the same E&S property / specialty niches AIG's Lexington arm fights for. Benefitting from the softening cycle that pushed AIG to cut Lexington retention 9% in Q2 2026.
  • Ariel Re / RenaissanceRe / Hiscox / Beazley — Specialty peers; RenaissanceRe acquired Validus Re from AIG in 2023 for $3.3B, confirming that AIG decided it couldn't win in traditional reinsurance against them.
  • Lloyd's of London market — Syndicated specialty insurance market in London; direct substitute distribution for the specialty / E&S business AIG writes out of Lexington and its London platforms.
  • Coalition / At-Bay / Resilience (cyber MGAs) — Tech-forward cyber specialists that attack AIG's historical dominance in professional lines and cyber. Coalition raised at ~$5B in 2022 and is a scaled rival to AIG's financial-lines book.
  • Marsh McLennan / Aon / Arthur J. Gallagher / WTW (brokers) — Not direct competitors but structural counterparties — broker consolidation squeezes carrier margins and gives brokers power to steer specialty flow. AIG's new CEO Eric Andersen comes from this side of the market.