NEAM Insights

Executive Summary In this issue, we analyze the enterprise profile of U.S. medical professional liability (MPL) insurers and compare their investment trends with those of the broader U.S. property and casualty (P&C) industry. The MPL composite’s net investment income (%) continued to increase in 2025, while the broader P&C industry experienced a decline. Within fixed income portfolios, the MPL composite generated a lower book yield despite maintaining average credit quality and duration comparable to those of the broader P&C industry. In terms of sector allocation, the MPL composite was overweight in agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and underweight in tax-exempt municipal bonds and government/agency bonds relative to the P&C industry. MPL insurers that assumed greater investment risk, particularly larger firms, tended to achieve higher book yields, suggesting that selective risk-taking may be an important driver of higher fixed income book yields. Read More

Executive Summary Private debt has become one of the most closely watched segments of the credit markets, yet insurers’ exposure remains difficult to quantify. Traditional private placements,1 privately negotiated debt securities outside the public markets, represent an identifiable component of insurers’ private debt exposure that can be consistently tracked through statutory filings. Using these filings, we examine private placement allocations, portfolio characteristics, and historical performance across life insurers, P&C insurers, and private equity (PE)-backed life insurers.2 Read More

Executive Summary In 2025, the U.S. health insurance1 industry’s net investment income declined, as lower income contributions from cash and short-term investments as well as Schedule BA assets more than offset the benefits of higher fixed income bond yields and equity dividend yields, both of which reached decade highs in 2025. Read More

Executive Summary In 2025, the U.S. P&C insurance industry’s net investment income declined modestly, as lower equity dividend income more than offset the benefits of higher bond yields. Nevertheless, book yield for the industry reached a decade high of 4.39%, extending its upward trend since 2021. Read More

Executive Summary In 2025, the U.S. life insurance industry’s net investment income continued to rise, though at a slower pace, extending the upward trend since 2023. Supported by elevated interest rates, book yield increased to 4.85%, its highest level in a decade, from a recent low of 3.78% in 2021. Read More

Executive Summary Products of property-focused insurers tend to have attritional and catastrophic loss claims that materialize and settle over a relatively short time-period once a loss-event occurs. In contrast, incurred losses related to casualty-focused insurance products may take several years to fully materialize and settle. We focus on commercial property insurers and commercial casualty insurers to see if their respective underwriting focus corresponds to any differences in their respective investment strategies.1 Our findings identified noteworthy characteristics that distinguished the investment portfolios of these carrier types from 2015 to 2024. Property insurers produced strong investment yields, but slower surplus growth relative to their casualty counterparts. Casualty insurers had more conservative asset allocations compared to property insurers. Historically, casualty insurers maintained longer duration portfolios relative to property insurers, but recent data suggests this may no longer be the case. This issue of Perspectives will explore the data behind these findings. Read More

Executive Summary Correlation statistics are measures commonly used to evaluate the relationship between two variables. Asset classes often exhibit different performance tendencies over time. During market rallies or drawdowns some assets may outperform each other in different ways. These relationships can help reduce volatility across market cycles for diversified investment portfolios. This is also the case for the various types of insurance products sold by U.S. Property and Casualty insurance companies, which often have divergent claims development and loss cost characteristics over time. Moreover, assets and liabilities for P&C insurers usually do not behave in a uniform way, supporting diversification at the enterprise level as well. Read More

Executive Summary To understand how life insurers have navigated the recent period of elevated interest rates, we updated our analysis of the industry’s net investment spread (NIS)1 - the difference between the earned rate on invested assets and the estimated guaranteed rate credited to insurance contracts.2 Read More

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2024, fraternal insurers’ net investment income (as a percentage of invested assets) surpassed that of the broader life insurance industry, driven by stronger returns from alternative investments. However, these alternative investments were largely concentrated among a small number of large fraternal writers. Despite this outperformance at the total portfolio level, the book yield of the fraternal composite’s fixed income portfolio remained below that of the life industry, with the gap widening since interest rates began rising in 2022. Notable differences in the duration and sector allocation within the fraternal composite’s fixed income holdings likely contributed to the lag in book yields, despite comparable credit quality between the two groups. Read More

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This article examines the enterprise profile of U.S. workers’ compensation (WC) insurers and evaluates their investment performance relative to the broader U.S. property and casualty (P&C) industry. WC insurers tend to carry more invested assets than other P&C insurers and typically exhibit lower premium-to-surplus ratios, reflecting the longer-tailed nature of the WC business. They have adopted a more conservative investment approach, reflected by lower allocations to risk assets, which has resulted in net investment income (%) trailing that of the broader P&C industry over the past decade. Within fixed income portfolios, despite maintaining comparable average credit quality and longer duration relative to the P&C industry, the WC composite generated lower book yields. A focused assessment of sector allocations and duration/quality strategies may reveal opportunities to enhance fixed income portfolio performance. Notably, WC insurers that assumed greater investment risk, particularly larger firms, generally achieved higher book yields, suggesting that selective risk-taking may serve as a lever for improving investment outcomes. Read More