What 2Q Bank Investment Gains May Signal for Insurance Results

All six major U.S. banks reported Q2 2026 results, which included strong growth across core revenue lines. Two of those lines, securities gains and asset-management fee income, have direct implications for the earnings to be reported by Travelers today and Hartford on July 23.

The strong securities gains just reported by the banks support the preview released last week that insurance companies are expected to report strong investment gains driven by 2Q equity market performance. Both Travelers and Hartford derive substantial income from investment gains as a percentage of total income. The following data, from the statutory Five-Year Historical Data for the largest subsidiary of each company, provides an example. Income from investment gains far outweighs income from underwriting. 

The P&C and life/health industries are no different than the Travelers and Hartford subsidiaries. The following exhibits include industry-level data for the P&C and life/health industries from FactSet’s Aggregates and Averages dataset, which is part of the standard workstation. Note that the total income for the life industry generally reflects negative underwriting income that is supplemented by investment income. 

Company Data

Travelers

Hartford

Industry Data

Property & Casualty

Life/Health

Macro Drivers and Impact on Insurance Earnings

Our Macro Tracker table below lists key economic data and the potential impact on insurance company earnings. The right-hand column identifies the specific, potential impacts on company earnings. 

Inflation: June CPI posted its steepest monthly drop since April 2020 followed a day later by a drop in PPI. Both moves were driven almost entirely by falling energy prices, so the underlying energy-stripped inflation picture hasn't eased nearly as much as the headline numbers imply. 

Employment: Initial claims fell to 208,000 for the week ending July 11, down 8,000 from the prior week's 215,000 and the lowest level in 10 weeks, coming in well below the 218,000–219,000 consensus forecast. The 4-week moving average also eased to 214,250 (from ~218,750), while continuing claims dropped 16,000 to just over 1.8 million.

Unemployment: The rate ticked down to 4.2% in June from 4.3% in May, where it had held for three straight months (March–May). The improvement was driven by a 0.3-point drop in labor force participation to 61.5% rather than stronger hiring, so it likely overstates underlying labor market health. 

Equity markets: The S&P 500 closed July 16 at 7,533.77, down 0.51% from Wednesday's close of 7,572.40, while the Nasdaq fell 1.47% to 25,881.95 from 26,269.23—both pulling back on a semiconductor-led selloff after TSMC's spending forecast spooked chip investors. That reverses Wednesday's gains, which had been driven by relief over cooling inflation data (June CPI and PPI both came in soft). 

AUM Through the Cycle

The table directly below presents AUM roll forward data for PRU, EQH, and HIG from 2Q21 through 1Q26, individual company net change (as a percentage of beginning AUM), and S&P 500 quarterly price return. The pattern that emerges is both consistent and actionable: AUM balances follow S&P 500 returns. 

Company AUM Roll Forward Detail

Equitable (drop): Company/Security - Assets Under Management - EQH-US - FactSet 

Hartford (drop): Company/Security - Assets Under Management - HIG-US 

Prudential (drop): Company/Security - Assets Under Management - FactSet 

Principal: Company/Security - Operations by LOB - FactSet 

Voya (drop): Company/Security - Assets Under Management - FactSet 

Manulife (drop): Company/Security - Assets Under Management - FactSet 

Accessing Insurance Insight Reports

FactSet Insight blog: Read more insurance sector analysis in our previous blog articles.

Document search: Access insurance insight reports from the FactSet Workstation using the Document Search function. Search for "Insurance Tracker: Event of the Week".

Today’s Top News: Insurance insight reports are also delivered on the Workstation through StreetAccount’s Today’s Top News, or “TTN”. Aside from providing access to insight reports, TTN provides an insurance-focused daily sector synopsis, updated events calendar, and “insurance reads” that highlight current news stories that impact the insurance sector.

To access TTN, select the Today’s Top News tab on the FactSet Workstation and select Insurance from the drop-down menu (both highlighted below).

Insurance Solutions

Deep sector data and functionality shown in this report are available through the FactSet Workstation. Learn more about FactSet insurance solutions that combine investment research, portfolio construction, and risk management in a cloud-native platform. Our comprehensive tools enable investment and actuarial teams to enhance asset modeling and capitalize on market opportunities.

This blog post is for informational purposes only. The information contained in this blog post is not legal, tax, or investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.