35 Largest Life & Health Insurance Companies by Market Cap 2017

Like banks, if not more than banks, insurance companies benefit from economies of scale and diversification that comes from pooling diverse risks.  What should stand out looking at this list of some of the world’s largest life insurance and health insurance companies is how much larger the Asian insurers, even though the US still has somewhat bigger banks.  This likely reflects the larger role life insurance companies in Asia play as a place of actually holding and investing long-term assets, rather than investors here buying them directly or through mutual funds or ETFs.