Pet insurance has shed its niche-product label. Over the past few years, the world's largest carriers have moved decisively into a class that industry analysts now expect to swell from US$21 billion last year to pushing US$80 billion by 2033 - a compound annual growth rate north of 17%. Other forecasters are more conservative, but every credible house has the market expanding at double-digit CAGR.
The drivers are consistent: pet humanisation, spiralling veterinary costs, tech-enabled distribution and a shift from accident-only cover toward bundled wellness products.
The global majors are muscling into territory built by pet specialists and insurtechs - and they're doing it on every continent that matters.
In the United States, Chubb has probably made the loudest industry moves, acquiring US pet MGA Healthy Paws from Aon in April 2024 in a deal analysts described at the time as positioning the commercial giant for expansion in a niche market with substantial growth potential. MetLife has built a credible US book under MetLife Pet Insurance. JAB Holdings, the consumer-goods conglomerate turned pet-platform builder, posted an eye-catching 79.9% year-over-year increase in US direct premiums in 2025. AXA, Munich Re and AXIS Capital are all writing meaningful US pet business too, but through reinsurance and MGA arrangements that fall outside the standard industry data series - a quirk S&P Global has flagged, and one that means the published league tables understate just how deep the global majors are in.
In Europe, Allianz remains the anchor through its long-running Petplan operation, where it sits alongside Direct Line in what Grand View Research calls a "dual-layer concentration structure" of traditional insurers and venture-backed insurtechs. JAB's Pinnacle Pet Group - the European leg of the same platform driving its US growth - owns the UK's Everypaw and Helpucover brands and now insures nearly one million pets across the UK and Europe.
Zurich has the lowest public profile of the global majors in pet, but the footprint tells a different story. Far from a latecomer, the Swiss group has been building capability across five markets and four brands.
In the US, Zurich North America has underwritten TrustedPals since 2019, a Marsh-built program targeting more than 183 million cats and dogs and distributed direct, via affinity, and through employer-sponsored voluntary benefit programmes brokered by Mercer. In Germany, Zurich's direct-to-consumer arm DA Direkt launched the petolo brand in 2021 with telemedicine baked in; the platform's parent, getolo, has since pushed into France with a sister product, patolo. The German operation has also embedded itself in retail, partnering with European pet superstore Fressnapf and hardware chain hagebau for in-store digital sales. In the UK and parts of Europe, Zurich-owned Cover-More distributes pet cover through the Insure Your Paws brand. And in March 2026, Zurich Australia launched its own pet proposition under the Virgin Money brand in partnership with consumer underwriting agency Honey, founded by Richard Joffe.
Alex Morgan, head of general insurance for Australia and New Zealand at Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich), framed the rationale in cultural terms.
"We're seeing increasingly a trend of pets as family," Morgan said. "And when family members are unwell, we want to help them get better."
That sentiment has reshaped the loss profile. Diagnoses that once ended in humane euthanasia - aggressive cancers, tumorous growths - are now met with long-term, often expensive curative or palliative care. Chronic conditions such as arthritis are caught earlier and managed with monthly or quarterly medication. The bills add up. Morgan estimated the Australian market alone exceeds AU$1 billion in written premium and is growing on the back of demographic trends and claims-cost inflation.
It is also, in his words, hyper-concentrated. "There really are a relatively small number of players who dominate that space, which we think means that there's room for Zurich to have a differentiated proposition," said Morgan.
The Australian product carries a low 20% customer copay against an 80% insurer share above the deductible, bundles veterinary telehealth and runs on a fully digital purchase, adjustment and claims journey - design choices that mirror Zurich's German playbook almost exactly.
The expansion is not without warning signs. Nationwide, still a top-five US pet insurance writer, announced in June 2024 that it would non-renew around 100,000 policies covering several hundred thousand pets - a phased withdrawal it was still executing through 2025. The company told customers the pet insurance industry was "in the midst of a crisis," blaming inflation and rising veterinary costs that had made some products no longer sustainable. ManyPets pulled out of the US market in late 2024. Several Japanese insurers have retrenched under similar pressure. Loss-cost inflation is biting even as topline premium grows - a familiar tension for any underwriter eyeing a hot personal-lines class.
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Consolidation is also reshaping the competitive map at speed. Independence Pet Holdings - backed by Warburg Pincus - bought Pets Best from Synchrony in March 2024, adding one of the longest-established US pet brands to its growing stable. Chubb's Healthy Paws purchase a month later was the largest move by a global commercial insurer to date. And JAB's Pinnacle Pet Group, already covered above, has been rolling up European specialists at pace.
Pet insurance is currently overwhelmingly sold direct to consumers and is often white-labelled - that is, underwritten by a major insurer but sold under a partner brand like a bank, retailer or telco. Zurich's Australian launch under the Virgin Money name is a textbook example. This has historically pushed the class to the margins of the intermediated market but two trends are changing that calculus.
First, employer-paid distribution is accelerating. Insurance Business has reported a 57% jump in companies offering pet insurance as an employee benefit in 2025 - a conversation that lands squarely with group and voluntary-benefits brokers. Zurich's TrustedPals model, distributed through Mercer's voluntary-benefits channel, is an example. Mordor Intelligence expects embedded and employer channels to drive a growing share of incremental global premium.
Second, the carriers brokers already place commercial business with - Chubb, Allianz, AXA, Munich Re, MetLife and Zurich - are now the same names underwriting Lassie's medical needs. As capacity tightens in pockets of the pet class and major writers reprice or retreat, placement, advice and benefits-design opportunities could increasingly find their way to the intermediary channel.
So the big cats are in the pet game. Brokers who have written it off as a direct-only sideshow may want to take another look.
