Insurance companies in Virginia: 3,686 offices, a Richmond cluster of listed insurers, and what domestic means under Virginia law

This page is for Virginians who want to check an insurance company or agent, people looking for insurance jobs in the state, businesses choosing an agency, and vendors who sell to insurers and agencies. It gives the Census counts, separates carriers from agencies, covers the three listed insurers based near Richmond and explains how Virginia's insurance law classifies companies. It doesn't recommend insurers.

Virginia in the Census count

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, insurance carriers and related activities (NAICS 524), Commonwealth of Virginia:

CBP counts locations with paid employees, not companies, so a carrier with offices in Richmond and Roanoke counts twice, and it leaves out agents who work alone.

Health and property insurers carry the jobs

Carriers (NAICS 5241) underwrite policies and pay claims; agencies, brokerages, adjusters and administrators (NAICS 5242) sell and service them.

Average pay is CBP annual payroll divided by employees.

Nearly two thirds of Virginia's insurance jobs (64.7%) are at carriers; the US figure is 55.8%. Health insurers are the largest employers per office, 149 employees each, with five establishments of 1,000 or more. Title insurers are the opposite: 138 establishments, 8th among states, averaging under four employees. And an agency averages 5.2 people; 1,977 of the 2,728 have fewer than five.

Three listed insurers, all near Richmond

From each company's 10-K for 2025, with revenue and headcount company-wide:

Markel's insurance segment produced $9.35 billion of its $15.51 billion in operating revenue; the rest came from its industrial, financial and consumer businesses, which are also in the headcount. Genworth says its principal US insurance subsidiaries are domiciled in Delaware, New York, North Carolina and Virginia. Kinsale's 720 employees all work at its Richmond headquarters, but its insurer, Kinsale Insurance Company, is domiciled in Arkansas. The Greater Richmond Partnership, the region's economic development organization, lists Markel, Genworth, Kinsale, James River Insurance and Allianz Partners among representative finance and insurance companies. How these three compare with the national giants is in the largest insurance companies in the US list.

What "domestic" means under Virginia law

Title 38.2 of the Code of Virginia defines the terms you'll meet when you look up a company. A "domestic company" is "a company incorporated or organized under the laws of the Commonwealth." A "foreign company" is one incorporated "under the laws of the United States, or of any state other than the Commonwealth." Both can be licensed to sell in Virginia. The "Bureau of Insurance" is "the division of the Commission established to administer the insurance laws of the Commonwealth," and the Commission is the State Corporation Commission. So a Richmond headquarters doesn't make an insurer domestic, and a Virginia-licensed foreign insurer isn't an unlicensed one.

Checking a company or agent

1. Find the legal insurer on the declarations page. It's often a subsidiary with a different name from the brand.
2. Check the license with the Bureau of Insurance at the State Corporation Commission, the division that administers Virginia's insurance laws. It's also where a complaint goes if the insurer doesn't resolve it.
3. Review the record. The NAIC's Consumer Insurance Search lets you "look up company complaints, licenses, and financial health," across states.
4. Complain in order. The NAIC advises trying the insurer first, then filing with the state regulator, which forwards the complaint and requires the insurer to respond. Stick to facts, dates and policy wording.

Working in Virginia insurance

Average insurance pay is $93,790, and $121,380 at life insurers. Forty-three establishments have 250 or more employees, and 11 have 1,000 or more. Agency careers start through the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Virginia, the state's Big I affiliate, which runs education for agents.

Selling to Virginia insurers and agencies

The Richmond insurers are specialty and life carriers that buy underwriting, actuarial and compliance tools; most personal-lines buying in Virginia happens at agencies. Our guide to finding decision makers helps map the larger carriers.

Illustrative example. Blue Ridge Bind and its price are invented; the counts are from CBP 2023.

Blue Ridge Bind (blueridgebind.example) sells a small-commercial quoting portal to agencies at $4,800 a year. Its market is Virginia's 751 agency establishments with five or more employees. If 40% write small commercial and 10% of those buy in a year, that's 30 agencies, or $144,000. Bebop builds the agency list and finds each principal.

Next step: see the national insurers that sell through Virginia's agencies in the largest insurance companies list.