Aflac’s US benefit ratio fell nearly five percentage points in the third quarter of 2026, its steepest single-quarter improvement in years. Most of the swing came not from a claims recovery but from a scheduled actuarial review.
The benefit ratio for the company’s US supplemental health operations fell to 40.7% in Q3 2026, a drop of 490 basis points from the 45.6% recorded in the same quarter a year ago and a dramatic reversal from the 49.5% spike that rattled the Q2 results. Pretax adjusted earnings in the US rose 31.5% year over year to $493 million. The company revised its full-year US benefit ratio guidance to below the 48% to 52% range it had set at the start of the year.
Each year, Aflac conducts an annual actuarial assumption review - a standard process in which the company updates the claims, lapse, and persistency assumptions embedded in its insurance reserves. When those assumptions move favorably, as they did in Q3, the reserve release flows directly through the benefit ratio, flattering the quarterly result by an amount that has nothing to do with whether claims in the period rose or fell. In Q3 2026, Aflac’s total adjusted earnings benefited from reserve remeasurement gains of $453 million across its operations.
In a written statement accompanying the results, Amos said the company “delivered solid adjusted earnings for the quarter and for the first nine months,” reflecting “our drive to execute our strategy and create long-term value for our shareholders.”
Aflac’s US benefit ratio climbed 220 basis points in that quarter, driven by a surge in group disability claims, a signal that the market conditions pushing more workers toward supplemental claims were biting. Employers cutting primary health plan benefits and shifting costs to employees generate more supplemental claims, and brokers placing voluntary products into those worksite accounts were watching the same dynamic unfold on both sides: rising client demand, but a carrier managing tighter margins.
Aflac’s actuaries, having reviewed the full picture of the business, now hold a more favorable long-term view of expected claims experience than they did when the year began. That does not resolve the Q2 question. The full-year guidance revision below 48%, which is a meaningful step down from the original range, reflects that updated view. It suggests the Q2 spike was weighted toward seasonal and product-mix factors rather than a structural deterioration of the supplemental claims environment.
Premium persistency in the US segment edged up 70 basis points year over year to 79.7%, a figure that speaks to retention in voluntary benefit books and reinforces the direction of the actuarial view.
US new annualized premium sales rose 3.5% to $403 million in the third quarter, with Aflac attributing the growth primarily to network dental and group life and disability products. In the Q2 2026 earnings call, Aflac President Virgil Miller disclosed that for every dollar of network dental sold in the US, the company was generating $1.07 of voluntary benefits alongside it. That ratio positions dental as an entry point into broader supplemental placement rather than a standalone product.
Group life and disability is growing alongside dental as the other engine. Net earned premiums for the US segment rose 3.3% year over year to $1.5 billion in Q3, extending a consistent growth run that the company now projects will finish the year just at or slightly above 3%.
The 12-month rolling persistency rate of 79.7%, up 70 basis points from a year ago, suggests the growth is holding at the account level rather than being written and lost.
