Chicago-based insurer CNA Financial has announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2026, reporting a net income of $196 million, down from the $403 million seen in the same period the year prior.
The insurer also saw a year on year decrease in core income, to $203 million from $409 million in Q3 2025, largely driven by annual long-term care reserve assumption updates and elevated catastrophe events.
For the nine months ending September 30, 2026, net income stood at $728 million, down from $976 million in 9M 2025. Core income for 9M 2026 was $752 million, decreasing from $1.02 billion a year earlier.
For Q3 2026, CNA’s Property & Casualty segments delivered core income of $397 million, a decrease of $59 million compared to the prior year quarter, reflecting lower underlying underwriting results and higher catastrophe losses.
The P&C segment delivered net written premium growth of 3%, due to renewal premium change of +3% and written rate of +2%. The segment’s combined ratio deteriorated by 4.2 points to 97%, compared with 92.8% in Q3 2025. It included 2.8 points of catastrophe loss impact compared with 1.5 points in the prior year quarter. There was no net prior period development impact in the current or prior year quarters. Catastrophe losses rose to $78 million pretax versus $41 million in the prior year quarter.
The firm’s Life & Group segment posted a steeper core loss of $171 million for Q3 2026 versus $22 million in the prior year quarter, reflecting an unfavourable after-tax impact of $137 million in 2026 from the company’s annual long-term care reserve assumption updates.
However, CNA explains that the unfavourable reserve assumption updates are almost entirely offset by a favourable economic impact from recent investment portfolio actions.
Corporate & Other segment reported a core loss of $23 million for the third quarter of 2026 versus $25 million in the prior year quarter.
Group-wide, net investment income totalled $635 million pretax, reflecting a $23 million decrease from limited partnerships and common stock to $48 million, and a $20 million increase from fixed income securities and other investments to $587 million.
“We delivered strong third quarter results with core income of $203 million reflecting disciplined growth, high-quality underwriting results and solid investment income, even with the unfauvorable accounting impact from the annual LTC reserve assumption updates. The LTC assumption updates, coupled with recent fixed income duration extension trades, confirms our belief that the risk from this runoff block is contained,” said Douglas M. Worman, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of CNA Financial Corporation.
Adding: “Renewal premium change was up 3% while rate increase was 2%. Still-substantial rate increase in casualty lines impacted by social inflation and higher rate in our Specialty segment offset rate decreases in property, workers’ compensation and our International segment.
“Looking ahead, we remain committed to deliberate portfolio management and profitable growth. As we move through the fourth quarter and into 2027, we will selectively deploy capacity where market conditions provide attractive risk adjusted returns, while maintaining the underwriting discipline to step back where they do not.”
