In search for clues about property/casualty insurance carrier profit potential and market conditions for 2026, Carrier Management listened to earnings conference calls for six publicly traded insurers in January, gathering executive explanations about 2025 results and their expectations for the year ahead.

At The Hartford, where executives reported net written premium growth of 8% for business insurance and a “pivotal year” of returning the personal auto line to profitability last year, CEO Christopher Swift explained, “The effectiveness of our strategy and investments in innovation are strengthening our competitive position and ability to generate superior returns for shareholders.”

“We have moved to the next phase of our innovation agenda, reimagining our processes and workflows with an AI-first mindset.”

Christopher Swift, The Hartford

The carrier leader devoted a good chunk of his opening remarks to highlighting his company’s progress on technology and innovation. “Over the past decade, we have modernized core platforms, strengthened data and analytics and advanced digital tools across the enterprise…. With foundational work across platforms, data and cloud largely complete, we have moved to the next phase of our innovation agenda, reimagining our processes and workflows with an AI-first mindset.”

Describing this phase as a “multiyear journey,” Swift said, “We have allocated investment spend to accelerate our progress,” providing examples of early wins in claims (record summarization), underwriting (data-rich insights), and operations (Amazon contact center tech enhancing customer interactions.

Related article: 20,000 AI Users at Travelers Prep for Innovation 2.0; Claims Call Centers Cut

“Our approach remains focused on practical, high-impact applications that augment human talent and drive improved experience for customers, employees and distribution partners,” he said.

Giving details of fourth-quarter and full-year financial results and market conditions, Swift highlighted The Hartford’s industry-leading position in the small business and longstanding relationships with agents and brokers as differentiators continuing to drive growth.

In particular, he noted the recognition of benchmarking firm, Keynova Group, which has ranked The Hartford first for its digital experience tailored to small businesses for seven years. “Investments in middle and large are replicating our industry-leading small business capabilities,” he added.

“Whether you describe that as AI, automation, speed, accuracy or leveraging rich data assets, these investments are enabling a more efficient underwriting process while delivering seamless agent, broker and customer experiences,” Swift said.

In personal lines, executives referred to cloud-based auto and home offering known as Prevail, launched for direct business in 2021, which was extended to agents in 10 states in 2025—with plans on agency rollout in 30 states by 2027.

Across all segments of commercial insurance, the company recorded 6.5% growth in net premiums in the fourth quarter, and a combined ratio of 83.6. Personal lines growth turned negative (down 2.4%), while the personal lines fourth-quarter combined ratio came in below 80.

See related article, “Insurance Groundhogs Warming Up to Market Changes” for charts summarizing the fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results of all seven publicly traded P/C insurance companies that reported year-end financial results in the month of January.

On the insurance pricing front, Swift said:

• Business Insurance renewal written pricing was up 6.1% in the fourth quarter, excluding workers compensation.
• “While property pricing continued to moderate this quarter, the line remains highly profitable and an attractive area for growth for the organization,” he said, also noting that rates for commercial auto and general liability “remained firm and above loss trend.”
• Commercial auto remained stable in the low double-digits.
• General liability primary lines remained in the high single-digit range.
• Excess and umbrella pricing increased further into the double-digits.

Breaking down the commercial insurance pricing trends for small, middle market and large accounts, CFO Barbara Bombara said:

• Small business renewal written pricing for the fourth quarter was 4.3% for all lines (or 7.7%, excluding workers comp.), and net written premiums rose 9%.
• Small business pricing was lower than in the third quarter, primarily because of “property components of the package product and E&S,” she said, forecasting that package property pricing will stabilize in 2026 and that high-single-digits liability package pricing will stay firm.
• Renewal pricing for middle market and large account business was 4.5% in the quarter (6.2% excluding comp), and this business had written premium growth of 5%.
• For Global Specialty business, renewal pricing was 3.9% for the quarter, and written premiums rose 5%.

Said Swift, “As we enter 2026, our priority is to sustain industry-leading ROEs through disciplined underwriting and risk selection. That approach, supported by the focus on the SME segment, enables us to execute through the next phase of the cycle.”

As for personal lines, Bombara reported double-digit price increases in the fourth quarter for both auto and home—10.4% and 11.9%, respectively. Written premium in personal insurance declined 2% however, even though agency premium grew 15% over the prior year, she said.

For more information on auto and home insurance, see related articles, “What Analysts are Saying About the 2026 P/C Insurance Market and Auto Insurance Shopping“

“In 2026, we expect to grow policy count for both auto and home in the agency channel,” said Swift. “Within the direct channel, given market competitiveness, policy count growth will remain challenged. The long-term objective is to expand market share while sustaining targeted profitability.”

During the Q&A session of the earnings call, analysts asked the executives about strategies to sustain positive renewal premium change in the small business segment, about their references to a stabilizing property insurance market amidst market discussion of property price softening. They also asked whether Prevail will rival The Hartford’s AARP affinity program as an engine of personal lines growth, and prodded the executives for 2026 forecasts of overall business insurance profit margins for The Hartford.

“We have built a wonderful smooth-running machine that is differentiated in the marketplace,” Swift said, commenting on small business growth potential related to the company’s digital capabilities, a “world-class BOP product,” and “E&S capabilities that will be embedded in our workflows.”

“For us, really, the sky is the limit,” he said, predicting “healthy levels” of go-forward growth in small business from The Hartford. “The broad market is willing to do business with fewer carriers that meet all their needs,” he added, suggesting that his company would be “a clear beneficiary” of this “structural strategic shift.”

Commenting on property pricing, President Mo Tooker said the “starting point really matters. We’ve got a very sophisticated filing strategy” and closely watch competitor filings. Echoing the other executives, he said that The Hartford expects some deceleration in pricing on the property portion of package policies “to flatten out here relatively shortly,” adding that pricing on the liability portion has continued accelerating.

“All of the products in the small business space are meeting target margins—are highly profitable. So, we really feel good about the starting point,” Tooker stressed.

Responding to a question about the limited insurance budgets of small business customers and the potential of price competition for these customers, Swift said it’s important to take “steady bites at the apple” on rate rather than shocking customers with excessive rate need, adding that The Hartford’s rates have been keeping up with loss trend.

“There’s [also] an agency angle,” Tooker suggested. “Our brokers and agents can’t afford to touch the small business very much. So, they want to put it in a home that’s predictable, consistent…..We are that predictable, consistent home right now,” he said.

Neither Tooker nor Swift gave a specific range of expected profit margins for business insurance or its underlying segments but instead referred to the starting point of an underlying combined ratio of 88.5 (excluding catastrophe losses and prior-year reserving changes). Swift said that beyond the innovative growth mindset, “we’re also a disciplined underwriting company” that won’t “chase growth for growth’s sake.”

“We’ve instructed our underwriters to try to hold on to margins to the extent possible–be disciplined and try to grow if it makes sense. And if it doesn’t, we’ll accept the outcome of a slower top line,” he said, still expressing confidence in the ability to grow at or above market rates.

Tooker reiterated that digital capabilities and Hartford’s agency base are tailwinds for the small business component of business insurance, noting that global and middle market accounts are more dependent on market conditions.