Protective
A 119-year-old Birmingham life and annuity insurer owned by Japan's Daiichi Life, which grows by buying other insurers' business and says more than 70% of its 3,800 staff work virtually.
Protective at a glance, April 2026- Revenue
- $8.0B GAAP total revenues in 2025, up 6% on the new insurance accounting rules (LDTI).
- Profit
- $127M net income in 2025, down 78% after the accounting change. First half 2026: $281M, double a year earlier.
- Debt
- $2.9B of senior and subordinated debt at June 30, 2026, against $8.7B of equity before market swings (AOCI).
- Watch
- New CEO Jan 2027 Paul Wells replaces Rich Bielen, two other top executives retire, and a first big property and casualty deal is due to close.
- AI
- Testing and learning Leadership's words for AI in April 2026. It is now hiring leads to put machine learning and GenAI into governed production.
- Staff
- 3,800+ teammates, more than 70% working virtually, with core sites in Birmingham, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
- Hiring
- 29 → 32 remote listings since Oct 10.
Old policies it bought earn the most.
Operating revenue by segment as Protective reports it. The biggest slice is Acquisitions: blocks of life and annuity policies bought from other insurers. Next come term and universal life (Protection) and annuities (Retirement). Asset Protection sells car warranties and GAP cover through dealers.
- 1A practiced buyer of other insurers' business61 acquisitions and about $7B of capital invested since 1970. Moody's calls acquiring companies and blocks an established core competency.Protective Annual Company Update, Apr 27, 2026
- 2Top-tier financial strength ratingsAA- from S&P and Fitch and A+ from AM Best for Protective Life Insurance Co. Risk-based capital was 416% at the end of 2025, up from 397%.Protective Financials page (ratings as of June 30, 2026); Annual Company Update
- 3A deep-pocketed parent that wants it to growDaiichi calls Protective its North American growth platform. Protective's plan shows $1.3B of capital available for acquisitions in 2026.Protective Annual Company Update, Apr 27, 2026, 3-year forecast
Protective brought in $1.9 billion in 91 days.
That is about $27 million more than the same three months a year earlier. Each of its 3,800 employees brought in about $2.11 million over the year, about $5,780 a day.
Revenue is not profit. It is the money that came in before Protective pays any of its costs.
PLC consolidated condensed statements of income, Q2 2026 (KPMG reviewed); staff approx. as of Jan 1, 2026Still profitable, but down from $502 million in 2024 (LDTI, recast).
Revenue grew 21% in two years. In 2025 (LDTI) it kept 6 cents of every revenue dollar as operating profit.
- 2023 (old GAAP rules): kept 7¢ of every $1
- 2024 (LDTI, recast): kept 7¢ of every $1
- 2025 (LDTI): kept 6¢ of every $1
Debt is about 27% of debt plus equity, which Protective says is within its risk tolerance. It paid off its term loan in January 2026; the next senior note is due in 2028. The holding company itself held only $13M of cash at June 30.
What the filings say, and what we think it means.
The fact is the filing's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Watch
A new accounting rule cut 2025 profit by more than three quarters.
Protective Annual Company Update (Legacy vs LDTI bridge); Q4 2025 supplement; Daiichi Q1 FY2026 deckProtective adopted the LDTI rules for long-duration policies. 2025 net income was $127M against a recast $571M in 2024, and pre-tax adjusted operating income was $479M instead of $696M under the old rules, mostly from assumption updates, notably mortality on payout annuities.
Cash and capital did not change, Protective says. But reported profits will swing more from now on, and the parent warns volatility may continue.
- 02Good
Its first big move into property and casualty insurance.
Genstar Capital release, Apr 28, 2026; PLC Q2 2026 financial statements, Note 3In April 2026 Protective agreed to buy Obsidian Insurance Holdings from Genstar Capital. Obsidian writes over $1B of premium a year through program managers and reinsures most of it. Terms were not disclosed; closing is expected Q4 2026 or Q1 2027.
A new business line means new teams to integrate. If you would join Obsidian, ask how it will fit inside a life insurer.
- 03Watch
A $1B dealer deal that has barely earned anything yet.
PLC Q2 2026 financial statements, Note 3 Recent TransactionsProtective closed its purchase of Portfolio Holding on Jan 1, 2026 for about $993M net, booking $854M of goodwill. In the first half of 2026 Portfolio brought in $108M of revenue and $1M of pretax income.
Early quarters after a deal often carry costs. Watch whether Portfolio earns enough to justify the price, because write-downs follow when it does not.
- 04Neutral
Three senior leaders leave at the end of 2026.
Reinsurance News, May 15, 2026CEO Rich Bielen retires and President and CFO Paul Wells becomes CEO on Jan 1, 2027. The chief transformation and strategy officer and the chief legal officer also retire at year end.
An inside successor usually means continuity. Still, a new CEO plus a new transformation lead can reset priorities, including for remote teams.
- 05Neutral
More cash is planned to flow up to Tokyo each year.
Protective Annual Company Update, 3-year forecast; PLC Q2 2026 statements; Daiichi FY2025 analyst meetingProtective's plan sends Daiichi $182M in 2025, $254M in 2026 and $323M by 2028. It paid a $253M dividend to its parent in early 2026. Daiichi says Protective remitted about 50% of its adjusted profit.
A steady payer is valued by the parent. The trade-off is less cash kept for growth in the US.
- 06Neutral
It handed $9.7B of old risk to Resolution Life.
Protective release via InsuranceNewsNet, Mar 6, 2025; Q4 2025 supplement balance sheetIn March 2025 Protective agreed to reinsure about $9.7B of runoff structured settlement and guaranteed universal life reserves with Resolution Life, keeping the administration. Reinsurance receivables rose from $4.5B to $14.2B during 2025.
This frees capital for deals and lowers market risk. Protective still services those policies, so that admin work stays in house.
- 07Watch
Operating expenses jumped a third in the first half.
PLC Quarterly Financial Supplement, Q2 2026, income statementOther operating expenses were $916M in the first six months of 2026, up 33% from $688M, while total revenues rose 2%. The Portfolio deal added a whole new business in that period.
Much of the jump is likely the acquisition, but the gap is worth watching. Insurers tend to answer cost pressure with 'business transformation' programs.
- 08Neutral
It no longer files reports with the SEC.
Protective Annual Company Update, introductionAfter its 10-K for 2021, Protective Life Insurance Co stopped periodic SEC filing under Rule 12h-7. It posts GAAP statements and quarterly supplements on its own website instead.
The numbers are still public and reviewed by KPMG, just harder to find. There is no 10-K risk-factor section to read.
- 09Good
Record annuity sales and a strong start to 2026.
Protective Annual Company Update; Q2 2026 supplementProtective took a record $6.3B of retail annuity deposits in 2025. In the first half of 2026 pre-tax adjusted operating income was $403M, up 34%.
Selling and servicing annuities is where much of the growth, and the hiring in sales support, is coming from.
Sales is paid 47% under market.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Protective?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Open site, nothing for agents. Readable pages, no agent tools or protocols.
Still Remote read- Not foundAgent payment or commerce protocols, MCP serversNo Protective or Daiichi announcement found tying it to MCP, Google AP2/UCP, OpenAI agent checkout or card-network agent programs. Policies are sold through advisors, banks and dealers.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not foundAn llms.txt file for AI toolsprotective.com/llms.txt returns not found (HTTP 404).checked Nov 3, 2026
- YesLets AI crawlers read protective.comrobots.txt names no AI bots. It blocks only content-system folders such as /sitecore and /temp for everyone and lists a sitemap.checked Nov 3, 2026
- MixedJob listings open to AI assistantsJobs sit on Lever. Lever's robots.txt allows search but blocks training crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended, with an ai-train=no signal. Lever's public postings feed works.checked Nov 3, 2026
- MixedFinancial reports readable by machinesThe financials and press release pages load their lists by script, so a plain fetch sees only placeholders. The PDFs themselves are openly downloadable.checked Nov 3, 2026
Where Protective puts AI to work.
- 1Building a governed ML and GenAI stackProtective says it is moving to product teams and investing in machine learning and generative AI. Its Voyager pod, spanning life, annuities and benefits, is hiring leads to run models on Databricks on Azure, with fairness and explainability checks for regulators.Protective AI/ML Engineering Lead posting on Lever
- 2Careful, not loud, about AIIn April 2026 leaders said AI is reshaping the industry and Protective is actively testing and learning, with a faster pace on responsible use. No AI-driven layoffs have been announced that we found.Protective Annual Company Update, Apr 27, 2026
More listings than on Sep 7, led by sales.
The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindAnnuity demand is strong.
Record $6.3B of retail annuity deposits in 2025, and a plan for $7.7B of Retirement sales in 2026.
- TailwindHigher rates help an insurer's portfolio.
Protective invested over $13B at an average 6.10% yield in 2025, above plan.
- TailwindMoney for more deals.
The plan shows $1.0B to $1.3B a year of capital available for acquisitions in 2026 to 2028, and RBC rising to 491% in 2026.
- HeadwindCompetition is getting tougher.
Management says the competitive landscape is intensifying and execution speed must accelerate.
- HeadwindReported profits will be bumpier.
Under LDTI, assumption updates hit net income directly. Daiichi says earnings volatility may continue from FY2026 onward.
Where Protective ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
Protective closes at least two more acquisitions beyond Obsidian by 2031.
Likely 72%M&AIt has done 61 deals, eight of them under Daiichi, and Obsidian would be the 62nd. Its own plan sets aside $1.0B to $1.3B a year for acquisitions through 2028.
Protective Annual Company Update; Genstar release - 2
Property and casualty becomes a real fourth leg, over a tenth of operating revenue, by 2032.
Coin flip 50%New productsObsidian writes over $1B of premium a year but reinsures most of it, so far less stays on Protective's books. Protective says the deal is meant to diversify earnings.
Genstar release, Apr 28, 2026; PLC Q2 2026 Note 3 - 3
GenAI models run in production across Protective's life, annuity and benefits operations by 2031.
Likely 72%AIIt is hiring leads to take ML and GenAI from experiment to governed production on Databricks. Leadership says AI is reshaping the industry.
Lever postings; Annual Company Update - 4
After-tax operating income reaches the $750M Protective planned for 2028.
Coin flip 50%GrowthThe plan climbs from $563M in 2025, and first-half 2026 pre-tax operating income rose 34%. But the 2025 figure is on old rules and LDTI makes results swing.
Protective Annual Company Update, 3-year forecast; Q2 2026 supplement - 5
Daiichi sells or spins off Protective by 2036.
Long shot 16%OwnershipDaiichi calls Protective its North American growth platform and has backed eight acquisitions since 2015. Protective's dividends to Tokyo are planned to rise every year.
Protective FABN investor presentation, March 2026
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 3, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.