Beazley business insurance

Overview

Beazley is a London-based specialty insurer and Lloyd's managing agency best known in the United States for cyber insurance, executive and professional liability and excess and surplus lines property. Since October 1, 2026, it has been owned by Zurich Insurance Group, which completed its £8.1 billion takeover that day; Beazley shares were delisted from the London Stock Exchange on October 2.

Beazley's NAIC group was ranked No. 47 among U.S. business insurers by 2025 commercial lines direct premiums written, with $1.94 billion, based on NAIC market share data. Other liability, the line that holds cyber, D&O and professional liability, accounts for $1.26 billion of that, followed by allied lines property, medical professional liability and fidelity, where Beazley ranks eighth nationally. That figure covers only the three U.S.-domiciled companies: Beazley Insurance Company, Inc. and Beazley America Insurance Company, Inc. (admitted carriers) and Beazley Excess and Surplus Insurance, Inc. U.S. business Beazley writes through its Lloyd's syndicates is not part of that NAIC group total.

North America is a big share of the business: Beazley's North America platform produced 42% of its $6.1 billion of 2025 insurance written premiums, through 15 offices in the U.S. and Canada. Beazley sells only through brokers.

History

Beazley began in 1986 at Lloyd's, in the middle of the U.S. liability insurance crisis; its Lloyd's managing agency still carries the Beazley Furlonge name. It says 2026 marks 40 years in business and 20 years in North America. Over that time it built a U.S. admitted and E&S platform alongside the Lloyd's syndicates, became a pioneer in cyber insurance, and in 2023 created the first cyber catastrophe bond. Beazley Security, its in-house cyber security unit, now supports its cyber policyholders. In early 2026 it added a Bermuda company, Beazley Bermuda Insurance Limited, which AM Best rated in February 2026.

The Zurich deal moved quickly:

• January 2026: Zurich approached Beazley; the Beazley board rejected an initial 1,230 pence per share proposal and a revised 1,280 pence proposal, according to trade press reports.
• March 2, 2026: the boards agreed a recommended all-cash offer of 1,310 pence per share, to be carried out by a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement.
• September 22, 2026: the court sanctioned the scheme.
• October 1, 2026: the scheme became effective. Beazley's chairman, Clive Bannister, and eight other directors left the board, and Zurich appointees including Kristof Terryn and Helen Pickford joined.
• October 2, 2026: Beazley shares were delisted. Zurich announced that Kristof Terryn would be CEO of Beazley and Zurich Global Specialty, subject to regulatory approval, and that CEO Adrian Cox would leave the company.

Zurich has said Beazley's underwriters will get immediate access to Zurich's distribution, and that Beazley's six-syndicate Lloyd's platform will expand Zurich's specialty reach. The completion announcements did not address changes to Beazley's U.S. insurance companies or brand; see when your insurer is sold or merges: what happens to your policy for what an ownership change does and does not do to an in-force policy.

Business insurance products

Beazley's U.S. product list is long and specialized:

• Cyber: Full Spectrum Cyber for small, mid-sized and large businesses, MediaTech and Quantum Cyber, with breach response, forensics and pre-breach services. See cyber insurance: what it covers for a business.
• Executive risk: public and private company D&O (including Side A DIC under the Beazley Armour name), EPL, fiduciary, crime and fidelity, M&A coverage, Execuguard (a combined D&O, EPL and fiduciary package) and Safeguard sexual misconduct liability.
• Professions: miscellaneous E&O (including MPL Secure for small firms), architects and engineers liability and coverage for U.S. and international Law firm insurance.
• Healthcare and life sciences: hospital professional liability, miscellaneous medical liability, virtual care, healthcare management liability (Beazley Remedy) and life sciences products.
• Property: North American commercial property on an E&S basis, delegated property, high-value homeowners and parametric insurance.
• Specialty and contingency: environmental and pollution liability, product recall, media liability, marine, event cancellation (including a small business version), film and media production, political risk and trade credit, terrorism and political violence, and deadly weapons protection.

Who it insures

Beazley's appetite runs from small professional firms whose brokers place E&O or cyber through myBeazley to large public companies buying Side A D&O. It is a natural first look for cyber, management liability, healthcare liability and other classes where specialist underwriting matters, and for E&S property that admitted carriers decline because of catastrophe exposure or occupancy. It is not a market for workers' compensation, commercial auto or a standard business owner's policy. Coverage written by Beazley Excess and Surplus or a Lloyd's syndicate is non-admitted, so it is not backed by state guaranty funds.

How to buy

Beazley works only through licensed brokers, retail and wholesale; a business owner cannot buy direct. Small business brokers trade through myBeazley, which handles multiple product lines through one point of contact. Larger and more complex accounts go to Beazley's underwriters in its U.S. offices or to its Lloyd's underwriters in London through a wholesale broker. A broker who is not yet appointed can apply through Beazley's broker center.

Claims

Check your policy first; it names the place to give notice. Beazley accepts notice of loss through an online form on its claims page, and U.S. cyber incidents can be reported to its breach response team at 866-567-8570 or by email. Because most of Beazley's liability policies are claims-made, report a claim or potential claim within the policy period (see occurrence vs claims-made policies). Cyber policyholders get pre-breach tools and incident response services through Beazley Security as part of Full Spectrum Cyber. As of December 2025, Beazley says, London-based brokers ranked it in the top quartile for claims service in the Gracechurch London Claims Monitor.

Financial strength and ratings

Beazley's ratings page lists A (Excellent) from AM Best for Beazley Insurance Company, Beazley America and Beazley Excess and Surplus, and A+ from Fitch for Beazley Excess and Surplus. Policies written at Lloyd's carry the Lloyd's market ratings of A+ (Superior) from AM Best and AA- from Fitch and S&P. On March 3, 2026, AM Best placed the ratings of the Beazley subsidiaries under review with positive implications because of the Zurich deal, saying the review would stay open until the deal completed and it had examined future business plans. A resolution of that review had not been published on Beazley's site as of early October 2026.

For 2025, Beazley reported insurance written premiums of $6.1 billion, down 1.0%, a discounted combined ratio of 77.3% and pre-tax profit of $1.15 billion. Cyber premiums fell as Beazley declined to follow what it called unprofitable pricing in much of the U.S. cyber market.

Strengths and weaknesses

Beazley is one of the most established specialty underwriters in cyber and management liability, now backed by one of the largest insurance groups in the world. The open questions are integration and the U.S. leadership and brand once Zurich settles its plans.

• Strengths: Deep, long-running expertise in cyber, D&O, professional and healthcare liability, with an in-house security unit. Admitted, E&S and Lloyd's paper under one roof. No. 8 nationally in fidelity. Now part of Zurich, whose main insurance companies AM Best rates A+ (Superior).
• Weaknesses: The U.S. companies' own rating is A (Excellent), and the Zurich-related rating review was still open. Integration into Zurich Global Specialty brings leadership change, including the departure of CEO Adrian Cox. Broker-only access and no workers' comp, auto or BOP. Much of its property and Lloyd's business is non-admitted.

How to contact Beazley