Insurance companies in NYC: who underwrites, who brokers and how to check them

This page is for three kinds of reader: New Yorkers looking for coverage who want to know which firms actually stand behind a policy, people looking for insurance jobs, and sellers who want insurers as customers. It doesn't rank carriers for consumers. It shows what's here, where the official records are and how to check a company.

Carriers, brokers and everything in between

The Census Bureau splits insurance into two groups. Carriers (NAICS 5241) underwrite policies and pay claims. Agencies, brokerages and related services (NAICS 5242) sell policies on a carrier's behalf, adjust claims or administer plans. A storefront with an insurer's logo in Queens is usually an agency; the company that pays your claim is the carrier. Our tabulation of the 2023 County Business Patterns county file for the five boroughs:

Employees are shown for Manhattan because several outer-borough cells carry the Census Bureau's high-noise flag. County detail rows don't add exactly to the group totals. Every reinsurance establishment in the city is in Manhattan.

The size of the market

From the County Business Patterns 2023 data for Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond counties, NAICS 524:

By size, 1,549 establishments have 1 to 4 employees, 380 have 5 to 9 and 194 have 10 to 19. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the classes from 20 employees up for every borough, so they can't be added up; all we can say is that 316 establishments have 20 or more (the total less the published classes). Statewide, New York had 8,434 insurance establishments and 164,125 employees, so the city holds 29% of the establishments and 36% of the jobs.

County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees, not companies: one insurer with three Manhattan offices counts three times, and self-employed agents with no staff aren't counted. The NAICS codes used are 524 and its subcodes (2017 basis).

Listed insurers and brokers headquartered here

SEC-registered companies in insurance SIC codes whose latest 10-K gives a New York City head office, by 2025 total revenue as reported:

Travelers is incorporated in Minnesota and EDGAR still shows a St. Paul business address, but its 10-K gives principal executive offices at 485 Lexington Avenue. CNA, Loews' insurer, is run from Chicago. EDGAR's address match also picked up several Chinese, Japanese and European insurers; their filings give head offices abroad, so they're left out. Mutual insurers and private brokers don't file 10-Ks. For the national ranking, see the largest insurance companies in the US.

How to check a carrier or broker in New York

1. Licence. The Department of Financial Services (DFS), which supervises more than 1,900 insurance companies, runs an Insurance Company Search by NAIC number, group or DMV code. Agents, brokers and adjusters are in its separate Producer/Licensee Search, which shows whether a licence was issued and its number.
2. Complaints. DFS ranks auto insurers by upheld complaints per million dollars of premium over two years; the 2025 report is the latest, with a history back to 2009 on Open Data NY. For other lines and other states, the NAIC's Consumer Insurance Search covers complaints, licences and financial health.
3. Non-admitted insurers. If a broker places you with an excess and surplus lines insurer, the Excess Line Association of New York keeps the list of eligible insurers. New York excess line premium was $10.26 billion in fiscal 2025, by ELANY's count.

For job seekers: DFS requires a department-approved pre-licensing course before an agent, broker or public adjuster licence, and PSI Services runs the exams. The large employers are in the table above.

Selling to New York insurers

Trade groups give you a member map: Big I New York for independent agents, the New York Insurance Association for property and casualty insurers (its members write nearly $14 billion a year), the Life Insurance Council of New York and ELANY. The Partnership for New York City convenes the city's large employers.

Worked example: claims intake software

Illustrative example. The vendor, prices and conversion rates are invented; the counts come from the Census and EDGAR figures above.

Five Boroughs Intake (fiveboroughsintake.example) sells software that reads first-notice-of-loss documents for commercial claims teams.

1. Size the list. 149 property and casualty establishments and 24 reinsurers: 173 sites. Assume they belong to about 90 companies, since head offices often run several sites.
2. Do the arithmetic. Reaching a claims operations leader at 60% of 90 gives 54 conversations. If one in ten agrees to a pilot, that's 5, and 2 contracts at $75,000 a year bring $150,000.
3. Start with the specialists. Bowhead and Ategrity each report about 200 to 300 employees, so a vice president of claims is often the buyer, and a pilot doesn't need a global procurement cycle.

Working out who owns claims intake at 90 companies is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in a list and suggests the person to contact.

Subject: First notice of loss at [company]

Hi [first name],

[Company] writes [line] from its [Manhattan office], and specialty claims teams tell us the first 48 hours go to retyping broker submissions.

We read loss notices and attachments into your claims system in minutes, with a person checking anything uncertain.

Would a 20-minute look at your last month's intake volume be useful?

[Your name]
[Phone number]

Next step: see how the city's insurers compare nationally in the largest insurance companies, or the whole local economy in companies in New York City.