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Palomar Holdings serves individuals and businesses seeking coverage for risks such as earthquake damage, property losses and liability claims. Earthquake, casualty and other property coverage account for most of its premiums. Customers generally buy through agents, brokers or insurance program administrators, which bring business to Palomar’s insurance subsidiaries. Premiums retained after paying reinsurers provide most of its revenue.
Palomar also lets insurance partners use its licensed insurers to issue policies for their own programs, earning fees for this service, known as fronting. It transfers part of its premiums and insured losses to reinsurers to limit the risk it keeps and support additional underwriting. It also earns investment income, mainly from bonds held while premiums await use for claims and expenses.
California is its largest market exposure. Distribution also depends heavily on a few program administrators: its largest, Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, sells the Value Select Residential Earthquake program, which supplies most of Palomar’s residential earthquake premiums. The business depends on obtaining reinsurance on workable terms, but Palomar remains responsible to policyholders if reinsurers fail to pay. State regulators must approve rates and policy forms for its admitted insurance products; its excess and surplus products do not require those individual-state approvals.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Palomar’s substantial earthquake business depends on competition with the California Earthquake Authority and on the cost and availability of insurance that covers catastrophe losses for insurers—catastrophe reinsurance.
RLI Corp. competes with Palomar for specialty property insurance premiums, and both also sell specialty casualty coverage. RLI’s pricing and coverage for distinctive property risks are the closest points of comparison for Palomar.
Skyward Specialty Insurance Group, Inc. competes with Palomar to insure businesses whose risks standard policies do not adequately cover, selling tailored coverage through both state-approved and excess-and-surplus channels. Watch its pricing and risk selection in these underserved commercial markets rather than treating it as an earthquake-insurance comparison.
Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. competes with Palomar for specialty property and casualty customers reached through insurance brokers, focusing on unusual or hard-to-insure U.S. risks. Its commercial property and small-business casualty premiums offer concrete comparisons for Palomar’s commercial business.
Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. competes with Palomar to insure businesses against specialty liability risks, a growing part of Palomar’s business: casualty rose from 15.3% of gross written premiums in 2024 to 26.8% in 2025. Bowhead’s casualty premiums are the most relevant line to watch, rather than its professional or healthcare liability business.
W.R. Berkley Corporation competes with Palomar for businesses buying specialty property and casualty insurance through its locally managed, specialized insurers. Its commercial insurance operations are the relevant comparison, not the separate business that insures other insurers’ risks.
American Financial Group, Inc. competes directly with Palomar for federal crop insurance customers and also sells specialized commercial coverage to businesses. Its federal crop business is the relevant comparison for a line that supplied 12.2% of Palomar’s gross written premiums in 2025.
Chubb Limited competes with Palomar for federal crop insurance customers, making that business more relevant to Palomar than Chubb’s broad insurance portfolio. Palomar’s crop gross written premiums grew from $116.239 million in 2024 to $247.547 million in 2025, increasing the importance of this rivalry.
Markel Group Inc. overlaps with Palomar in specialty insurance and in issuing policies for other insurance programs using licensed carriers, known as fronting. Watch Markel Insurance’s underwriting and fronting business rather than group-wide results, which also include substantial noninsurance businesses.
Hamilton Insurance Group, Ltd. competes with Palomar through Hamilton Select, which insures hard-to-place U.S. casualty risks for small and midsized customers. Hamilton Select is the closest comparison for Palomar’s casualty business; the wider Hamilton group also takes catastrophe risk, so its overall results reflect more than this rivalry.
James River Group Holdings, Inc. competes with Palomar’s rapidly growing specialty casualty business by selling businesses both primary liability coverage and extra coverage above it. Watch its pricing discipline: James River says it will reduce premiums written when prices or policy terms are inadequate.
Arch Capital Group Ltd competes with Palomar for U.S. specialty insurance customers through both state-approved policies and coverage written outside that approval framework. Its U.S. specialty insurance business is the relevant comparison, rather than worldwide results that also include reinsurance and mortgage insurance.
Hippo Holdings Inc. competes with Palomar to let firms that manage and underwrite insurance programs—MGAs—use licensed insurers to launch or expand those programs, through both state-approved and excess-and-surplus coverage. Hippo’s provision of licenses, capital and reinsurance access is the relevant business to watch against Palomar’s carrier-access fees.
Kestrel Group, Ltd. competes directly with Palomar to help insurance program managers and underwriting agencies issue policies through licensed carriers, a service known as fronting. Watch Kestrel’s Program Services revenue, which comes from charging for carrier-network access and support, rather than its legacy reinsurance business.
Chubb Limited earningsCB
Chubb's report will offer a read on federal crop insurance, where it competes with Palomar for customers.
Focus on Chubb's crop premiums and underwriting results, not the group's overall figures. Premium growth with sound results suggests a market where business is available and competition may be stronger; weaker premiums or results could reflect softer demand or harder-to-control crop losses and costs, not necessarily the same outcome for Palomar.
Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. earningsKNSL
Kinsale's report will show how premiums and underwriting are changing in commercial property and small-business casualty, markets that overlap with Palomar's commercial business.
Read Kinsale's commercial property and small-business casualty premium growth alongside underwriting results. Growth in both with sound results suggests brokers and businesses are still buying specialty cover, which could intensify competition for Palomar's commercial customers; slower growth or weaker results may signal softer demand or worse risk economics, but does not establish that Palomar is seeing the same.
Fed Interest Rate Decision
Palomar earns income from fixed-maturity bonds as they pay interest, while Fed rate changes can also raise the cost of its variable-rate borrowings.
Expected4.0%Last release4.0%
If it comes in above expectations
Higher rates can increase interest expense on any variable-rate borrowing, while higher yields as bonds mature and are reinvested can lift income from Palomar’s fixed-maturity portfolio.
If it comes in below expectations
Lower rates can reduce interest expense on any variable-rate borrowing, while lower yields as bonds mature and are reinvested can limit income from Palomar’s fixed-maturity portfolio.
Palomar Holdings, Inc. earningsThis company
Palomar's report will show how much of its newly written business becomes earned premium after reinsurance and how much claims and expenses consume.
Read gross written premiums beside net earned premiums: the first reflects policies written, while the second is the portion recognized as coverage runs, after reinsurance. Then check the combined ratio, which measures claims and expenses against earned premiums. Rising net earned premiums with a stable or lower combined ratio means growth is reaching underwriting profit; written premiums rising while net earned premiums lag and the combined ratio climbs means reinsurance, claims, or expenses are absorbing more of it.
Kestrel Group, Ltd. earningsKG
Kestrel Group's report will show whether program managers' demand for access to licensed insurers is changing, a business that overlaps with Palomar's fronting services.
Watch the trend in Kestrel's Program Services revenue, earned by charging program managers for carrier-network access and support. Growth would show stronger demand for services that overlap with Palomar's carrier platform and related fees; flat or falling revenue could point to softer demand or tougher competition. The companies' business mixes differ, so their revenue amounts are not directly comparable.
