Reinsurance Group of America

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated, commonly known as RGA, is a United States-based global life and health reinsurer. Its principal role is to assume insurance risks from primary insurers, enabling those companies to manage capital, mortality, morbidity, longevity, medical, and other balance-sheet exposures. Unlike diversified insurance groups that combine property and casualty, banking, asset management, and retail insurance operations, RGA has built its identity around life- and health-related reinsurance and associated financial solutions. The business traces its origins to General American Life Insurance Company, which established General American Reinsurance in 1973 as a reinsurance division. The operation expanded with the growth of the U.S. life-reinsurance market and subsequently entered international markets. A major early step was General American's acquisition of the life-reinsurance business of National Reinsurance of Canada. That transaction created RGA's first international office and established a Canadian platform that was later renamed RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada. RGA, Incorporated was incorporated in Missouri in 1992 as a holding company for the U.S. and Canadian reinsurance businesses. In 1993, it completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RGA. General American retained a 65 percent interest after the offering. The public-company structure provided a vehicle for further international expansion while preserving the operating focus of the life-reinsurance business. In 2000, MetLife acquired General American, including its interest in RGA. RGA consequently operated under MetLife ownership for approximately eight years. In 2008, MetLife separated RGA through a spin-off, making RGA an independent publicly traded company. The separation marked an important strategic turning point: RGA could pursue its own capital allocation, client relationships, geographic expansion, and product-development priorities without being a subsidiary of a primary life insurer. RGA's offerings include traditional life reinsurance, living-benefits reinsurance, group reinsurance, health reinsurance, financial solutions, facultative underwriting, and product-development support. These capabilities allow it to work with insurers across product design, underwriting, risk transfer, capital management, and claims-related analytics. Its clients are principally insurance companies and other institutional counterparties rather than individual consumers, so the RGA brand is primarily encountered in the business-to-business insurance market. The company operates internationally through regional businesses and offices serving multiple insurance markets. Its scale is reflected in the amount of life reinsurance it has in force. The cited reference material reports approximately $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force and total assets of $156.6 billion as of December 31, 2025; these figures are time-specific and should not be treated as current outside that reporting date. RGA has also received industry recognition, including a first-place ranking in NMG Consulting's Global All Respondent Business Capability Index for 15 consecutive years through 2025, based on feedback from insurance executives in more than 50 markets. The company was also reported as ranking No. 193 on the 2026 Fortune 500 and appearing on Fortune's 2026 World's Most Admired Companies list. Its present positioning is that of a specialized, globally scaled partner for life and health insurers, combining underwriting expertise, actuarial knowledge, product innovation, and financial-risk management.

RGA's history begins in 1973, when General American Life Insurance Company formed General American Reinsurance as a dedicated reinsurance division. The operation was created to support the transfer and management of life-insurance risks and grew alongside the expansion of the U.S. life-reinsurance market. By 1993, the division had built a life-reinsurance portfolio reported at $114.7 billion of life reinsurance in force, demonstrating that it had become a substantial specialist operation rather than a small supporting unit. International expansion began before RGA became an independent public company. General American acquired the life-reinsurance business of National Reinsurance of Canada, creating its first international office. The Canadian business was subsequently renamed General American Life Reinsurance Company of Canada and later became RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada following RGA's public offering. This Canadian platform provided an early foundation for RGA's broader international model. In 1992, Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated was incorporated in Missouri as a holding company for the U.S. and Canadian reinsurance businesses. The following year, RGA completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RGA. General American retained a 65 percent interest after the offering. The IPO gave the reinsurance business a distinct corporate and capital structure while linking its future to public-market performance. A significant ownership change occurred in 2000, when MetLife acquired General American. The acquisition included General American's interest in RGA, placing RGA within the MetLife organization. During the following eight years, RGA continued to operate as a life- and health-reinsurance business under MetLife ownership. In 2008, MetLife spun RGA off, and RGA became a fully independent company. Independence was strategically important because it allowed RGA to determine its own growth priorities and serve a broad group of insurance clients rather than operating as part of a primary insurer's corporate structure. After the spin-off, RGA continued developing an international specialty position in life and health reinsurance. Its business expanded beyond traditional individual life risk transfer to include living benefits, group reinsurance, health reinsurance, financial solutions, facultative underwriting, and product-development services. These activities reflect the changing needs of primary insurers, which use reinsurers not only to transfer mortality or morbidity risk but also to manage capital, support new products, improve underwriting capacity, and address complex financial exposures. RGA's international operating model serves insurance markets across several regions, while its corporate base remains in Chesterfield, Missouri, in the Greater St. Louis area. The company has presented itself as a focused global specialist rather than a generalist financial conglomerate. The cited reference material states that, as of December 31, 2025, RGA had approximately $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force and $156.6 billion in total assets. It also reports that RGA ranked first in NMG Consulting's Global All Respondent Business Capability Index for fifteen consecutive years through 2025, based on responses from insurance executives in more than fifty markets. The same reference reports a No. 193 position on the 2026 Fortune 500 and inclusion in Fortune's 2026 World's Most Admired Companies list. These recognitions and scale indicators describe RGA's development from a General American division into an independent international reinsurer concentrated on life and health-related risks.

1. 2025Reported scale and industry recognition

   Reference material reported approximately $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force and $156.6 billion in total assets at December 31, 2025, as well as a fifteenth consecutive first-place NMG Consulting capability ranking.

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2. 2008RGA becomes an independent company

   MetLife spins off RGA after approximately eight years of ownership, making the reinsurance group fully independent.

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3. 2000MetLife acquires General American

   MetLife acquires General American and its interest in RGA, placing RGA under MetLife ownership.

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4. 1993Initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange

   RGA completes its IPO under the ticker RGA, while General American retains a 65 percent interest. By this time, the predecessor reinsurance division had reported $114.7 billion of life reinsurance in force.

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5. 1992Reinsurance Group of America is incorporated

   RGA is incorporated in Missouri as a holding company for General American's U.S. and Canadian reinsurance businesses.

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6. 1973General American establishes a reinsurance division

   General American Life Insurance Company forms General American Reinsurance, the predecessor of RGA's modern life and health reinsurance business.

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A specialized global life and health reinsurer serving insurers through risk transfer, underwriting expertise, product development, and capital-management solutions.

• Life reinsuranceReinsurance

  RGA's core activity is the reinsurance of life-insurance risks for primary insurers. Arrangements can help clients transfer mortality exposure, manage capital requirements, diversify their portfolios, and obtain additional underwriting capacity. The business is principally institutional and business-to-business, with RGA acting as a risk-bearing and technical partner rather than selling conventional policies directly to retail customers.

• Living-benefits reinsuranceReinsurance

  Living-benefits reinsurance addresses risks associated with benefits payable while an insured person is alive, including products connected with disability, critical illness, and other health-related or accelerated-benefit features. RGA supports insurers with risk assessment, product knowledge, and portfolio-management capabilities in this area.

• Group reinsuranceReinsurance

  Group reinsurance supports insurers that cover populations through employer-sponsored, affinity, or other group arrangements. The offering can help primary insurers manage concentration, mortality, morbidity, and claims volatility across group portfolios while accessing specialist underwriting and actuarial expertise.

• Health reinsuranceReinsurance

  RGA's health-reinsurance activities address health and morbidity exposures that can accompany life and protection products. Services may include risk transfer, underwriting support, analytics, and product-development assistance for insurers responding to changing medical, longevity, and consumer-protection needs.

• Financial solutionsFinancial services

  Financial solutions are designed to help insurers manage capital and balance-sheet objectives alongside insurance risk. They complement traditional reinsurance by addressing structured financial, capital, and asset-liability considerations. Specific structures vary by client, jurisdiction, and applicable insurance regulation.

• Facultative underwritingUnderwriting services

  Facultative underwriting provides case-specific assessment and reinsurance support for individual risks that may require specialized review. It extends RGA's underwriting role beyond standardized treaty portfolios and can assist insurers with complex or unusual cases.

• Product developmentInsurance services

  RGA works with insurance clients on the development and refinement of life, health, and related protection products. Product-development support can combine market knowledge, actuarial analysis, underwriting experience, and reinsurance structuring to help insurers bring new propositions to market or adapt existing ones.

• 2008MetLife spin-off of RGAM&A

  MetLife had owned RGA through its acquisition of General American in 2000.

  What changed. MetLife separated RGA through a spin-off, making the reinsurance company fully independent.

  Aftermath. RGA regained an independent corporate and strategic structure and continued operating as a publicly traded global life and health reinsurer.

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• 1993Public-company formation through the RGA initial public offeringM&A

  RGA had been organized as a holding company for General American's U.S. and Canadian reinsurance businesses, with an international operating base already established in Canada.

  What changed. RGA completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, while General American retained a 65 percent interest.

  Aftermath. The IPO established RGA as a separately listed reinsurance platform and supported its subsequent development as an international specialist.

  General American retained ownership. 65% (1993 IPO)

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• 2026RGA appeared on the 2026 Fortune 500 and World's Most Admired Companies lists

  The cited reference reported that RGA ranked No. 193 on the 2026 Fortune 500, its highest position to that point, and was named to Fortune's 2026 World's Most Admired Companies list.

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• 2025RGA reported approximately $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force and $156.6 billion in total assets as of December 31, 2025

  The cited reference described RGA's scale at the end of 2025, including approximately $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force and total assets of $156.6 billion.

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• 2025RGA ranked first in NMG Consulting's global life and health reinsurance capability index for the 15th consecutive year

  According to the cited reference, RGA received the top position in NMG Consulting's Global All Respondent Business Capability Index for the fifteenth consecutive year, based on insurance-executive feedback from more than 50 markets.

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1. Reinsurance Group of America
2. RGA official website