Segment information

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment information

Segment information

Chubb operates through six business segments: North America Commercial P&C Insurance, North America Personal P&C Insurance, North America Agricultural Insurance, Overseas General Insurance, Global Reinsurance, and Life Insurance. These segments distribute their products through various forms of brokers, agencies, and direct marketing programs. All business segments have established relationships with reinsurance intermediaries.

•The North America Commercial P&C Insurance segment provides both commercial and consumer P&C products and services. This segment includes the business written by Chubb divisions that provide property and casualty (P&C) insurance and services to large, middle market and small commercial businesses in the U.S., Canada, and Bermuda. This segment includes our retail divisions: Major Accounts, Commercial Insurance, including Small Commercial Insurance; and our

wholesale and specialty divisions: Westchester and Chubb Bermuda. These divisions write a variety of coverages, including property, casualty, workers’ compensation, package policies, risk management, financial lines, marine, construction, environmental, medical risk, cyber risk, surety, and excess casualty; as well as group accident and health (A&H) insurance. 

•The North America Personal P&C Insurance segment includes the business written by Chubb Personal Risk Services division, which includes high net worth personal lines business, with operations in the U.S. and Canada. This segment provides affluent and high net worth individuals and families with homeowners, automobile and collector cars, valuable articles (including fine arts), personal and excess liability, travel insurance, and recreational marine insurance and services.

•The North America Agricultural Insurance segment includes the business written by Rain and Hail Insurance Service, Inc. in the U.S. and Canada, which provides comprehensive multiple peril crop insurance (MPCI) and crop-hail insurance, and Chubb Agribusiness, which offers farm and ranch property as well as specialty P&C coverages, including commercial agriculture products.

•The Overseas General Insurance segment includes the business written by two Chubb divisions that provides both commercial and consumer P&C insurance and services in the 51 countries and territories outside of North America where the company operates. Chubb International provides commercial P&C, A&H and traditional and specialty personal lines for large corporations, middle markets and small customers through retail brokers, agents and other channels locally around the world. Chubb Global Markets (CGM) provides commercial P&C excess and surplus lines and A&H through wholesale brokers in the London market and through Lloyd’s. These divisions write a variety of coverages, including traditional commercial P&C, specialty categories such as financial lines, marine, energy, aviation, political risk and construction, as well as group A&H and traditional and specialty personal lines. 

•The Global Reinsurance segment includes the reinsurance business written by Chubb Tempest Re, comprising Chubb Tempest Re Bermuda, Chubb Tempest Re USA, Chubb Tempest Re International, and Chubb Tempest Re Canada. Chubb Tempest Re provides a broad range of traditional and specialty reinsurance coverages to a diverse array of primary P&C companies, including small, mid-sized, and multinational ceding companies.

•The Life Insurance segment includes international life operations written by Chubb Life and Chubb Tempest Life Re, and the North American supplemental A&H and life business of Combined Insurance.

Corporate primarily includes the results of all run-off asbestos and environmental (A&E) exposures, run-off Brandywine business, Westchester specialty operations for 1996 and prior years, and certain other non-A&E run-off exposures. In addition, Corporate includes the results of our non-insurance companies including Chubb Limited, Chubb Group Management and Holdings Ltd., and Chubb INA Holdings Inc. Our exposure to A&E claims principally arises out of liabilities acquired when we purchased Westchester Specialty in 1998, CIGNA’s P&C business in 1999, and The Chubb Corporation (Chubb Corp) in 2016.

In addition, revenue and expenses managed at the corporate level, including realized gains and losses, interest expense, the non-operating income of our partially-owned entities, Chubb integration expenses and income taxes are reported within Corporate. In addition, the amortization expense of purchased intangibles, amortization of the fair value adjustment on acquired invested assets and assumed long-term debt as part of the Chubb Corp acquisition are considered Corporate costs as these are incurred by the overall company. The Chief Executive Officer does not manage segment results or allocate resources to segments when considering these costs and they are therefore excluded from our definition of segment income (loss).

Management uses underwriting income (loss) as the basis for segment performance. Chubb calculates underwriting income (loss) by subtracting Losses and loss expenses, Policy benefits, Policy acquisition costs, and Administrative expenses from Net premiums earned. Segment income (loss) includes underwriting income (loss), net investment income (loss), and other operating income and expense items such as each segment's share of the operating income (loss) related to partially-owned insurance companies and miscellaneous income and expense items for which the segments are held accountable. Our main measure of segment performance is Segment income (loss), which also includes amortization of purchased intangibles acquired by the segment. We determined that this definition of segment income (loss) is appropriate and aligns with how the business is managed. We continue to evaluate our segments as our business continues to evolve and may further refine our segments and segment income (loss) measures. To calculate Segment income (loss), include Net investment income (loss), Other (income) expense, and Amortization expense of purchased intangibles. Certain items are presented in a different manner for segment reporting purposes than in the Consolidated Financial Statements. These items are reconciled to the consolidated presentation in the Segment measure reclass column below and include:

•Losses and loss expenses include realized gains and losses on crop derivatives. These derivatives were purchased to provide economic benefit, in a manner similar to reinsurance protection, in the event that a significant decline in commodity pricing impacts underwriting results. We view gains and losses on these derivatives as part of the results of our underwriting operations, and therefore, realized gains (losses) from these derivatives are reclassified to losses and loss expenses.

•Policy benefits include gains and losses from fair value changes in separate account assets, as well as the offsetting movement in separate account liabilities. The gains and losses from fair value changes in separate account assets that do not qualify for separate account reporting under GAAP have been reclassified from Other (income) expense. We view gains and losses from fair value changes in both separate account assets and liabilities as part of the results of our underwriting operations, and therefore these gains and losses are reclassified to policy benefits.

•Net investment income includes investment income reclassified from Other (income) expense related to partially-owned investment companies (private equity partnerships) where our ownership interest is in excess of three percent. We view investment income from these equity-method private equity partnerships as net investment income.

The following tables present the Statement of Operations by segment:

For the Year Ended December 31, 2020 (in millions of U.S. dollars)	North America Commercial P&C Insurance		North America Personal P&C Insurance		North America Agricultural Insurance		Overseas General Insurance		Global Reinsurance		Life Insurance		Corporate		Segment Measure Reclass		Chubb Consolidated
Net premiums written	$	14,474	$	4,920	$	1,846	$	9,335	$	731	$	2,514	$	—	$	—	$	33,820
Net premiums earned	13,964		4,866		1,822		9,285		698		2,482		—		—		33,117
Losses and loss expenses	10,129		3,187		1,544		5,255		435		724		435		1		21,710
Policy benefits	—		—		—		—		—		726		—		58		784
Policy acquisition costs	1,942		974		123		2,568		174		766		—		—		6,547
Administrative expenses	1,006		270		9		1,034		37		320		303		—		2,979
Underwriting income (loss)	887		435		146		428		52		(54)		(738)		(59)		1,097
Net investment income (loss)	2,061		260		30		534		307		385		(87)		(115)		3,375
Other (income) expense	23		5		1		13		2		(74)		(791)		(173)		(994)
Amortization expense of purchased intangibles	—		11		27		45		—		4		203		—		290
Segment income (loss)	$	2,925	$	679	$	148	$	904	$	357	$	401	$	(237)	$	(1)	$	5,176
Net realized gains (losses)													(499)		1		(498)
Interest expense													516		—		516
Income tax expense													629		—		629
Net income (loss)													$	(1,881)	$	—	$	3,533

For the Year Ended December 31, 2019 (in millions of U.S. dollars)	North America Commercial P&C Insurance		North America Personal P&C Insurance		North America Agricultural Insurance		Overseas General Insurance		Global Reinsurance		Life Insurance		Corporate		Segment Measure Reclass		Chubb Consolidated
Net premiums written	$	13,375	$	4,787	$	1,810	$	9,262	$	649	$	2,392	$	—	$	—	$	32,275
Net premiums earned	12,922		4,694		1,795		8,882		654		2,343		—		—		31,290
Losses and loss expenses	8,206		3,043		1,616		4,606		352		757		158		(8)		18,730
Policy benefits	—		—		—		—		—		696		—		44		740
Policy acquisition costs	1,831		948		84		2,501		169		620		—		—		6,153
Administrative expenses	1,028		286		6		1,033		35		323		319		—		3,030
Underwriting income (loss)	1,857		417		89		742		98		(53)		(477)		(36)		2,637
Net investment income (loss)	2,109		258		30		588		279		373		(125)		(86)		3,426
Other (income) expense	24		3		1		12		1		(48)		(459)		(130)		(596)
Amortization expense of purchased intangibles	—		12		28		45		—		2		218		—		305
Segment income (loss)	$	3,942	$	660	$	90	$	1,273	$	376	$	366	$	(361)	$	8	$	6,354
Net realized gains (losses) including OTTI													(522)		(8)		(530)
Interest expense													552		—		552
Chubb integration expenses													23		—		23
Income tax expense													795		—		795
Net income (loss)													$	(2,253)	$	—	$	4,454

For the Year Ended December 31, 2018 (in millions of U.S. dollars)	North America Commercial P&C Insurance		North America Personal P&C Insurance		North America Agricultural Insurance		Overseas General Insurance		Global Reinsurance		Life Insurance		Corporate		Segment Measure Reclass		Chubb Consolidated
Net premiums written	$	12,485	$	4,674	$	1,577	$	8,902	$	671	$	2,270	$	—	$	—	$	30,579
Net premiums earned	12,402		4,593		1,569		8,612		670		2,218		—		—		30,064
Losses and loss expenses	8,000		3,229		1,114		4,429		479		766		53		(3)		18,067
Policy benefits	—		—		—		—		—		628		—		(38)		590
Policy acquisition costs	1,829		939		79		2,346		162		557		—		—		5,912
Administrative expenses	966		269		(9)		1,014		41		310		295		—		2,886
Underwriting income (loss)	1,607		156		385		823		(12)		(43)		(348)		41		2,609
Net investment income (loss)	2,061		236		28		622		289		341		(209)		(63)		3,305
Other (income) expense	3		1		2		3		—		(12)		(406)		(25)		(434)
Amortization expense of purchased intangibles	—		13		28		41		—		2		255		—		339
Segment income (loss)	$	3,665	$	378	$	383	$	1,401	$	277	$	308	$	(406)	$	3	$	6,009
Net realized gains (losses) including OTTI													(649)		(3)		(652)
Interest expense													641		—		641
Chubb integration expenses													59		—		59
Income tax expense													695		—		695
Net income (loss)													$	(2,450)	$	—	$	3,962

Underwriting assets are reviewed in total by management for purposes of decision-making. Other than Unpaid losses and loss expenses, Future policy benefits, Reinsurance recoverables, Goodwill and Other intangible assets, Chubb does not allocate assets to its segments.

The following table presents net premiums earned for each segment by line of business:

	For the Year Ended December 31
(in millions of U.S. dollars)	2020		2019		2018
North America Commercial P&C Insurance
Property & other short-tail lines	$	2,423	$	1,987	$	1,861
Casualty & all other	10,812		10,136		9,773
A&H	729		799		768
Total North America Commercial P&C Insurance	13,964		12,922		12,402
North America Personal P&C Insurance
Personal automobile	822		829		803
Personal homeowners	3,327		3,183		3,127
Personal other	717		682		663
Total North America Personal P&C Insurance	4,866		4,694		4,593
North America Agricultural Insurance	1,822		1,795		1,569
Overseas General Insurance
Property & other short-tail lines	2,468		2,244		2,134
Casualty & all other	2,738		2,494		2,429
Personal lines	1,981		1,896		1,784
A&H	2,098		2,248		2,265
Total Overseas General Insurance	9,285		8,882		8,612
Global Reinsurance
Property	104		131		123
Property catastrophe	173		142		170
Casualty & all other	421		381		377
Total Global Reinsurance	698		654		670
Life Insurance
Life	1,317		1,101		1,022
A&H	1,165		1,242		1,196
Total Life Insurance	2,482		2,343		2,218
Total net premiums earned	$	33,117	$	31,290	$	30,064

The following table presents net premiums earned by geographic region. Allocations have been made on the basis of location of risk:

	North America		Europe (1)		Asia Pacific / Far East		Latin America
2020	70	%	11	%	12	%	7	%
2019	70	%	11	%	12	%	7	%
2018	70	%	11	%	12	%	7	%

(1)     Europe includes Eurasia and Africa regions.