American International Group, Inc.

What does American International Group own?
AIG owns a group of regulated insurance subsidiaries including National Union Fire Insurance Company, American Home Assurance, Lexington Insurance, Talbot Underwriting at Lloyd's, Western World, and Glatfelter. It also owns the Travel Guard travel insurance brand and held a 10.1 percent stake in former subsidiary Corebridge Financial at the end of 2025.

Is American International Group publicly traded?
Yes. AIG trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker AIG and is a component of the S&P 500. The company went public in 1969. Its shares are widely held by institutional investors.

Who founded American International Group?
Cornelius Vander Starr founded the company in Shanghai in 1919 as American Asiatic Underwriters, a general insurance agency serving Western businesses in China. Starr moved the headquarters to New York in 1939 and built the organization into a multinational insurer.

Where is American International Group headquartered?
AIG is headquartered in New York, New York, USA. The company has been based in New York since 1939, when Starr relocated from Shanghai ahead of World War II. It operates in more than 200 countries and jurisdictions.

How many brands does American International Group own?
AIG primarily operates under the single AIG master brand. Distinct brands include Lexington Insurance, the largest US excess and surplus lines insurer, and Travel Guard for travel coverage. Regulated underwriting entities such as National Union, American Home, and Talbot issue policies largely under the AIG name.

Who owns American International Group?
AIG is owned by its public shareholders, with no controlling owner. Major institutional holders include Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street. The US Treasury owned up to 92 percent during the 2008 bailout but exited completely in December 2012.

Did the government profit from the AIG bailout?
Yes. The Federal Reserve and Treasury committed up to $182 billion in support in 2008 and 2009. AIG repaid all assistance by the end of 2012, and the government recorded a combined profit of approximately $22.7 billion on the rescue.

Cornelius Vander Starr, a 27 year old from California, founded American Asiatic Underwriters in Shanghai in 1919. The agency sold fire and marine insurance to Western businesses operating in China. Starr expanded through Southeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, building agencies across the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere in the region.

Starr moved the company's headquarters to New York in 1939 as war spread across Asia and Europe. After World War II, the organization resumed Asian operations and expanded into Japan, becoming one of the first foreign insurers to rebuild there. The group went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969 under the American International Group name, a structure created in 1967 to consolidate the various Starr companies.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg took over in 1967 when Starr handed him control of the US operations, and he ran AIG for nearly four decades. Under Greenberg, AIG grew into the largest insurer in the United States and one of the largest financial companies in the world, expanding into life insurance, financial products, aircraft leasing through International Lease Finance Corporation, and asset management. By the early 2000s, AIG was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a market value above $150 billion.

Greenberg resigned in March 2005 amid an accounting investigation led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. AIG subsequently restated several years of financial results and paid a $1.6 billion settlement in 2006 related to accounting and bid rigging allegations.

The defining crisis came in September 2008. AIG's Financial Products unit in London had written roughly $500 billion in credit default swaps on mortgage backed securities without posting adequate collateral. When the securities collapsed, counterparties demanded tens of billions in collateral AIG did not have. The Federal Reserve extended an $85 billion credit facility on September 16, 2008 in exchange for a 79.9 percent equity stake, and total government support eventually reached approximately $182 billion. The Treasury's ownership peaked at roughly 92 percent. AIG fully repaid the support by late 2012, and the government ultimately recorded a profit of about $22.7 billion on the rescue.

Robert Benmosche led the post crisis stabilization from 2009 to 2014, selling non core assets including Asian life insurer AIA and Alico. Peter Hancock ran the company from 2015 to 2017, followed by Brian Duperreault from 2017 to 2021. Peter Zaffino, who joined from Marsh & McLennan in 2017, became CEO in 2021 and Chairman in 2022.

Recent history has been defined by portfolio simplification. AIG sold a majority stake in Fortitude Re, its legacy reinsurance vehicle, between 2018 and 2020. It separated the life and retirement business as Corebridge Financial in a September 2022 IPO and continued selling down the position through 2025. The company acquired underwriting agency Glatfelter Insurance Group in 2018 as part of the Validus deal era expansion of specialty lines, and sold Crop Risk Services in 2023. In May and June of 2025, S&P and Moody's upgraded the financial strength ratings of AIG's main insurance subsidiaries to AA- and equivalent levels.

For FY2025, AIG reported net premiums written of $23.7 billion, a calendar year combined ratio of 90.1 percent, adjusted after-tax income of $4.0 billion, and a Core Operating ROE of 11.1 percent, the first time the company posted an adjusted ROE above 10 percent in more than a decade.

2008 Government Bailout: AIG received approximately $182 billion in total government support during the financial crisis, the largest bailout of a single company in US history. The Treasury peaked at roughly 92 percent ownership. AIG repaid the full amount and the government recorded a profit of about $22.7 billion, but the episode remains the defining event in the company's history.

Retention Bonus Controversy (2009): Weeks after the bailout, AIG paid $165 million in retention bonuses to employees of the Financial Products unit responsible for the credit default swap losses. The payments triggered congressional hearings, a public backlash, and a House vote to tax such bonuses at 90 percent, though the bill did not become law.

Accounting Restatement (2005-2006): Under regulatory pressure, AIG restated five years of results in 2005, reducing previously reported earnings by $3.9 billion. Hank Greenberg resigned as CEO in March 2005. AIG paid $1.6 billion in 2006 to settle SEC and New York State charges related to accounting practices and bid rigging.

Greenberg Litigation: Former CEO Hank Greenberg spent years in litigation with regulators and with AIG itself, including a fraud suit brought by the New York Attorney General that settled in 2017 with a payment of approximately $9 million and no admission of wrongdoing. Greenberg also sued the federal government over the bailout terms; a 2015 ruling found the government exceeded its authority but awarded no damages.