Is The Hartford a Good Insurance Company?

The Hartford Financial Services Group is one of the most established and financially respected insurance organizations in the United States — a company founded in 1810 that has operated for more than 215 years through economic cycles, major catastrophe years, and multiple structural transformations of the U.S. insurance market. As of July 2025, The Hartford holds an A+ (Superior) financial strength rating from AM Best — an upgrade from A (Excellent) — alongside an AA- from Standard & Poor’s and an Aa3 from Moody’s for Hartford Fire Insurance Company, with Stable outlooks confirmed across all three agencies. The company reported $3.8 billion in net income in 2025 with a 19.4% core earnings return on equity — exceptionally strong performance that reflects disciplined underwriting, diversified premium growth across all business lines, and favorable prior year development. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA evaluates The Hartford with the same framework applied to every carrier: financial strength first, then product category fit, then the comparison context that determines whether The Hartford is the best available option for a specific planning objective or whether a different carrier produces a better outcome. Our insurance company reviews directory applies that framework across 100+ carriers with consistent evaluation criteria.

The honest and useful answer to “is The Hartford a good insurance company” is: genuinely yes — and with meaningful nuance that determines whether it is the right carrier for your specific situation. The Hartford’s competitive strengths are concentrated in property and casualty insurance, commercial lines, workers’ compensation, and group benefits — the product categories where the company’s scale, claims infrastructure, and underwriting depth are most directly measurable in outcomes. In these categories, The Hartford is not simply respectable; it is among the market leaders by any objective measure. The nuance applies when the conversation shifts to individual life insurance and individual annuities: The Hartford exited the retail life and annuity business by selling its run-off life and annuity operations to Talcott Resolution, and the modern Hartford brand is primarily a P&C and group benefits organization. Understanding that distinction — and knowing which product categories to evaluate at The Hartford versus which require comparison against dedicated specialists — is the foundation of a useful Hartford review. Our resource on what an insurance company’s AM Best rating means covers how to interpret financial strength ratings across the full carrier landscape.

The Hartford — Product Category Evaluation

A useful carrier review maps the company’s competitive strengths to specific product categories rather than producing a generic verdict. The Hartford’s strengths are substantial but concentrated — and the planning implications are different depending on whether the conversation involves commercial insurance, group benefits, personal lines, or retirement income products. The table below provides the practical evaluation framework across The Hartford’s primary product categories.

The table’s most important distinction for most readers is the final two rows — the individual life and individual annuity categories where The Hartford is either a limited or absent participant in the current retail market. Consumers who search for “Hartford insurance” because of brand familiarity often arrive with a retirement income or individual life insurance planning objective that The Hartford’s current product lineup does not address through active retail channels. Redirecting that planning conversation toward the carriers that do compete in those specific product categories — with current contract designs, active distribution, and competitive pricing — produces better planning outcomes than brand-anchoring a decision in a category where the carrier is not the best available option.

The Hartford’s Financial Strength — What A+ Actually Means and Why It Was Upgraded

The Hartford’s AM Best upgrade to A+ (Superior) in July 2025 was driven by AM Best’s assessment of the company’s balance sheet strength as “strongest” — the highest possible capital adequacy tier — alongside strong operating performance, a favorable business profile, and appropriate enterprise risk management practices. The upgrade reflected multi-year improvement in underwriting discipline, diversified premium growth, and consistent execution that produced the record $3.8 billion net income performance in 2025. Hartford Fire Insurance Company holds A+ from AM Best, AA- from S&P, and Aa3 from Moody’s — all on Stable outlook. Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company — the group benefits subsidiary — independently maintains A+ from AM Best and AA- from S&P as well. Our resource on what an insurance company’s AM Best rating means covers the full rating scale and what each level reflects about a carrier’s capacity to fulfill long-duration obligations.

For employers evaluating The Hartford for group benefits — disability, life, paid leave — the financial strength of Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company specifically is the relevant entity rating because that subsidiary issues most group benefit contracts. The independent A+ rating at that subsidiary level confirms that the group benefits promise is backed by the same strong capital structure that supports the broader Hartford enterprise. For workers’ compensation policyholders, Hartford Fire Insurance Company’s A+/AA- ratings are the relevant backing — and the combination of market leadership (#1 by direct written premiums) and strong financial ratings is directly relevant to a product where long-duration medical and indemnity obligations can span decades for serious injuries.

The Hartford and Talcott — The Legacy Annuity Distinction Every Policyholder Needs to Understand

One of the most practically important clarifications in a Hartford review is the Talcott distinction. The Hartford sold its life and annuity run-off business — the individual life insurance and annuity policies that the company had historically issued but was no longer actively growing — to Talcott Resolution (a private equity-backed entity). This means that if you own a life insurance or annuity contract that was originally issued under a Hartford brand, your contract is likely now administered by Talcott rather than by The Hartford Financial Services Group that holds the A+ ratings described above. Our resource on is Talcott Financial Group a good insurance company covers the Talcott-specific evaluation — including Talcott’s own financial strength ratings, the service environment for legacy contracts, and what policyholders should consider when evaluating options for legacy Hartford/Talcott contracts.

The practical implication for legacy contract holders is that “is The Hartford good” is not the right question for evaluating your existing policy. The right questions are contract-specific: what entity holds your contract today, what are the surrender charges and market value adjustment provisions, what free withdrawal provisions apply, how is the account value credited, and what income or death benefit features are embedded in your specific policy language. Our resource on annuity surrender charges and MVA covers the early exit mechanics that most directly affect whether staying with a legacy contract or exploring a 1035 exchange to a current-market alternative produces the better financial outcome. Our resource on what is a deferred annuity provides the foundational design framework for evaluating any legacy contract’s role in the current retirement income plan.

The Hartford for Group Benefits — Where the Carrier Genuinely Leads

The Hartford’s most unambiguous competitive leadership is in the group benefits market. The #1 ranking in fully insured disability in-force and #1 in paid family and medical leave in-force reflect a depth of employer relationship, administrative infrastructure, and claims management capability that very few carriers can match at the same scale. For HR professionals and business owners evaluating group benefits carriers, these market rankings matter because they represent real-world performance across an enormous population of employer-sponsored disability claims — a category where the carrier’s ability to adjudicate claims consistently, communicate with employees professionally, and return disabled workers to work efficiently is directly observable in employer experience over time.

The Hartford’s group disability offering — through Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company — covers short-term disability, long-term disability, and increasingly, paid family and medical leave programs that intersect with state-mandated leave requirements. Employers in states with paid leave mandates often value The Hartford’s integration capabilities, which allow voluntary employer-paid leave programs to coordinate seamlessly with state-run programs in a single administrative framework. Our resource on long-term disability insurance covers the design framework for group LTD — and importantly, the distinction between group LTD and the individual own-occupation disability coverage that executives and high earners typically need to supplement it. The Hartford is an excellent group disability carrier; it is not a primary market for the individual own-occupation disability coverage that fills the gap group plans leave for senior professionals. Our resource on best disability insurance rates covers the individual disability market comparison that complements any group plan evaluation.

Group life insurance through The Hartford similarly reflects scale and administrative integration. The #3 position in combined fully insured disability, group term life, and supplemental health in-force represents an employer relationship footprint that gives The Hartford broad experience in group risk management. Our resource on group life insurance covers how group life functions alongside individual life coverage — the portability, coverage limit, and benefit period differences that determine whether group life provides adequate protection or requires individual supplementation. Our resource on best term life insurance policy covers the retail individual term market where Hartford’s absence means the comparison is entirely between dedicated individual life carriers whose underwriting and pricing reflect active competition for that business.

The Hartford for Business Owners — Commercial Lines and Risk Management

For business owners specifically, The Hartford’s commercial insurance lineup represents one of the carrier’s clearest competitive advantages. Workers’ compensation is not only The Hartford’s largest commercial segment but also the one where its history, claims infrastructure, and return-to-work programs are most directly relevant to the business owner’s experience. Workers’ compensation claims can be among the most expensive and operationally complex insurance events a business faces — particularly in healthcare, construction, manufacturing, and other industries with elevated physical risk profiles — and the claims management quality of the carrier handling those events directly affects both the direct cost and the business’s ability to maintain workforce continuity during the claim period.

Business owners who carry Hartford commercial coverage often also benefit from considering how that relationship coordinates with individual protection planning for themselves and key executives. Our resource on business loan life insurance covers the specific application where life insurance is assigned to a lender as collateral for business debt — relevant for business owners whose Hartford commercial coverage sits alongside financing obligations that require separate life insurance protection. For business owners who are also planning for the income continuity risk of a personal disability, the group disability benefits that The Hartford provides to employees do not extend the same own-occupation protection quality to the owner that an individually owned policy delivers. Our resource on pension alternative covers the annuity-based retirement income structure that many business owners use alongside commercial insurance planning — a product category where dedicated annuity specialists rather than The Hartford represent the most competitive options.

Individual Annuities and The Hartford — The Comparison That Matters for Retirement Income

The Hartford’s exit from the retail individual annuity market through the Talcott sale means that anyone evaluating The Hartford for a new individual annuity purchase — whether fixed, indexed, or income-oriented — should redirect that search to the dedicated annuity carriers that actively compete in the retail market with current product designs. The Hartford’s financial strength ratings are not the reference point for that comparison because The Hartford is not the issuing entity for new retail annuity contracts. The comparison is between dedicated annuity specialists on income rider design, crediting mechanics, surrender provisions, and liquidity flexibility. Our resource on what is a GLWB covers the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit mechanics that govern most deferred annuity income rider designs — the contract provision that most directly determines how much guaranteed lifetime income a given premium produces. Our resource on guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits explained covers the full design framework in detail, including how rollup rates, payout percentages, and rider fees interact to determine the actual income produced by different carrier designs.

For retirement income planning, our resource on sequence of returns risk covers the retirement portfolio risk that guaranteed income from an annuity most directly eliminates — the vulnerability to early-retirement market declines that can permanently impair a portfolio withdrawal-dependent retirement plan. Our resource on annuity free withdrawal rules covers the liquidity provisions that most distinguish one annuity contract from another in the current market — relevant for buyers evaluating current annuity alternatives in the absence of The Hartford as a retail annuity option. Our resource on how Social Security and annuities work together covers the income planning coordination that determines the optimal timing and structure for guaranteed income in the overall retirement plan. For buyers evaluating how annuity income compares to the pension income that many retirees find insufficient or absent, our resource on pension alternative covers how fixed and indexed annuities fill the pension income gap for retirees without traditional defined benefit plan access.