If somebody is comparing Chubb against AIG Private Client for you in 2026, stop and fix the premise. AIG Private Client Group isn’t a current brand. The business is Private Client Select Insurance Services LLC, and it isn’t the same kind of company as Chubb. Chubb is an insurance company. Private Client Select is a managing general underwriter, which means it designs and underwrites the product but writes it on somebody else’s insurance company paper.
Both structures are ordinary, and plenty of serious organizations use each one. But a comparison that treats them as two interchangeable companies gets the most important question wrong. That question is who stands behind the policy, and how strong they are.
What changed, and when
AIG and Stone Point Capital announced the formation of an independent managing general agent in February 2023 and finalized the agreement in April 2023. The transaction closed in 2023. The resulting organization is Private Client Select Insurance Services LLC.
Ownership is worth stating carefully, because Private Client Select’s own releases have described it two different ways. A July 2024 release called it “a leading independent Managing General Underwriter that is majority owned by American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) and Stone Point Capital LLC.” A January 2025 release reversed the order, describing it as majority owned by Stone Point Capital LLC and American International Group, Inc. The safe and accurate published wording is that Private Client Select is majority owned by Stone Point Capital and AIG. Neither party publishes a percentage split, so don’t accept one.
Ross Bowie was appointed chief executive effective January 8, 2025, having joined in February 2024 as President and Chief Risk Officer.
One more detail that dates fast. Ross Buchmueller, who founded PURE and moved on from PURE at the end of 2023, joined the Private Client Select board as chairman, announced in January 2026. Leadership in this corner of the business moves between the same handful of names. Worth remembering when a proposal leans on one.
The structural difference in one paragraph each
Chubb is the insurer. Chubb is the marketing name used to refer to subsidiaries of Chubb Limited, domiciled in Zurich and listed in New York under CB. Its U.S. personal lines material discloses that insurance is provided by ACE American Insurance Company and its U.S. based Chubb underwriting company affiliates. AM Best describes the same structure from outside: through ACE American Insurance Company and its pooled and substantially reinsured U.S. affiliates, Chubb is a market leader in personal lines insurance for high net worth clients. Chubb’s personal lines home product is Masterpiece Homeowners, and its public web category for the line is High Value Homeowners Insurance. Both names are current.
Private Client Select is a producer. Its own legal notice states that “Private Client Select is the marketing name for Private Client Select Insurance Services LLC, a licensed property/casualty insurance producer in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia,” domiciled in Delaware with its principal place of business in St. Petersburg, Florida. In California it does business as PC Select Insurance Services under California license numbers 6009488 and 2N60097. It designs the product, underwrites within the authority it’s been given, and services the account. Somebody else carries the risk.
Neither structure is a red flag. What matters is knowing which question you’re asking. With Chubb, “how strong is the company” has one answer. With Private Client Select it has two parts. Whose paper is it, and what is that entity rated?
Whose paper, and the rating gap we are not going to fill
Private Client Select’s legal notice lists the AIG member companies referenced on its site, among them AIG Assurance Company, AIG Property Casualty Company, American Home Assurance Company, Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Illinois National Insurance Co., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., and New Hampshire Insurance Company. That table lists surplus lines eligibility as “None” for every company except Illinois National, shown as eligible in Mississippi only.
Private Client Select attaches its own caveat to that list, and it’s a fair one: “The listing of an insurance company in this notice shall not constitute a representation or guaranty that (1) insurance coverage will be provided to you by any such company, or (2) that any such company is authorized to offer in a jurisdiction a particular type of insurance product or coverage.”
There’s an excess and surplus arm in the story too. In July 2024, AIG announced the formation of Marbleshore Specialty Insurance Company, described by AIG’s then chairman and chief executive as “AIG’s 50-state E&S company dedicated to the ultra and high-net-worth business.” The announcement itself said the arrangement was subject to regulatory approval. As of our review of the Private Client Select legal notice on September 23, 2026, Marbleshore Specialty doesn’t appear in the AIG member company table on that page. So we won’t tell you that Private Client Select writes surplus lines on Marbleshore paper in all fifty states today. That’s an open item rather than a fact.
Here’s the gap that matters most. We could not retrieve a current AM Best financial strength rating for the specific AIG member companies that carry Private Client Select business, nor for Marbleshore Specialty. Private Client Select itself, as a managing general underwriter, doesn’t carry a financial strength rating, and publishing one for it would be a category error. So we’re not publishing a rating. Ask which entity is issuing the policy, look that entity up on AM Best directly, and note both the rating and the date of the action.
Chubb’s side of that question is answerable and dated. AM Best affirmed a Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “aa+” (Superior) for the grouped subsidiaries of Chubb Limited on January 16, 2026, with a stable outlook. AM Best assesses balance sheet strength as strongest, operating performance as very strong, business profile as favorable and enterprise risk management as appropriate, noting a combined ratio in the mid-to-high 80 percent range. Retrieved from AM Best September 24, 2026.
Read the scope of that affirmation, not just the letter. It covers the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. In the same release AM Best affirms Combined Insurance Company of America and Combined Life Insurance Company of New York at A+ (Superior), ACE Life Insurance Company at A- (Excellent) and Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand at A (Excellent). AM Best rates groups of legal entities, not brands. If a proposal quotes you a rating without naming the entity, the proposal is incomplete.
Chubb’s own personal lines material is also less specific than people assume. It names only ACE American Insurance Company and its U.S. based Chubb underwriting company affiliates. The specific companies that issue Masterpiece homeowners aren’t named in the public personal lines material we reviewed, so your declarations page is the reliable source there too.
Distribution, which affects how you get to either one
Chubb states plainly that “Chubb insurance for homeowners is offered through independent insurance agents and brokers.” There’s no direct channel.
Private Client Select’s distribution has two layers. On July 25, 2024 it announced an agreement under which “Ryan Specialty will become PCS’s exclusive wholesale broker in the High and Ultra-High-Net-Worth markets in the United States.” Read the scope precisely. That exclusivity governs excess and surplus placements. It doesn’t mean everything goes through Ryan Specialty, and it says nothing about how a retail agency gets access. Private Client Select also runs its own broker portal and broker login, which points to a direct relationship with retail agencies alongside the wholesale arrangement. It publishes no public appointment application, so we can’t describe that side from public material.
The practical consequence is the same either way. You need a licensed intermediary, and you want to know how many of them are in the chain, because that’s who answers the phone at renewal. Our guide to choosing a private client insurance advisor has the questions that surface it.
Products, compared as published
Chubb’s published personal lines around the home include the Masterpiece homeowners form, plus condominium and cooperative coverage on a separate Masterpiece form. Valuable articles insurance is split into Jewelry, Arts, Wines and Spirits and Your Collections. Then flood, personal umbrella and excess liability, and home appliance and equipment breakdown coverage. Valuables are separate policies here rather than an endorsement bolted on at the end.
Coverage features Chubb publishes include extended replacement cost, contents replacement cost with no deduction for depreciation up to the limit, building code upgrade coverage when rebuilding, water backup from interior sewers and drains, and personal liability limits ranging from $1 million to $100 million. In most states there’s also a deductible waiver, where the base deductible is $50,000 or less and the covered loss exceeds $100,000. The footnote travels with that waiver: terms may vary by state, and it doesn’t apply where a special deductible such as a hurricane or vacant house deductible applies. Chubb also publishes a complimentary home appraisal by a Chubb Risk Consultant and HomeScan, infrared scanning of walls and ceilings to find leaks, missing insulation and faulty electrical connections before they turn into damage.
Private Client Select’s published coverage lines are Homeowners, Automobile, Fine Art and Collectibles, Yacht and Excess Liability, alongside Risk Management Services and a Family Office offering positioned as consolidating coverage into a single coordinated plan across assets, generations and geographies.
Notice what’s missing from that list: flood and personal cyber. Don’t assume either is offered. Ask.
Private Client Select publishes a risk mitigation illustration rather than a schedule of coverage terms: a rural secondary home turned down elsewhere for fire department distance. Its Risk Mitigation Services experts evaluated response times and local capabilities, then underwrote on the specific conditions at that property. That’s a company-supplied example of how it thinks, and it should be read as one.
Here’s a real gap. Private Client Select doesn’t publish the settlement language for its homeowners product in the material we reviewed, so we can’t set its dwelling settlement basis next to Chubb’s extended replacement cost wording. If settlement terms decide this for you, and on an expensive house they usually do, get the policy form and read the dwelling settlement provision. See extended versus guaranteed replacement cost and replacement cost versus actual cash value for what you’re looking for.
Eligibility and availability, where neither publishes a number
Private Client Select publishes no numeric eligibility threshold. Its homeowners page is entirely qualitative, with lines like “From primary estates to seasonal retreats” and “True value can’t be measured in square footage.” Its stated market, from the July 2024 release, is the high and ultra-high-net-worth markets in the United States.
Chubb publishes no dwelling value minimum either. We checked the public homeowners page and the Masterpiece brochure. What Chubb publishes is positioning language: it describes itself as a premium insurer that specializes in serving successful families and individuals with more to insure. The dollar thresholds attributed to Chubb on aggregator sites don’t come from Chubb, and we won’t repeat them.
On state availability, neither answer works as a map. Private Client Select is licensed as a producer in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and its site describes it as operating in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia. That’s producer licensure, which isn’t a fifty-state product claim, and Private Client Select publishes its own caveat that coverage is subject to underwriting review and approval and may not be available in all jurisdictions. Chubb publishes no homeowners state list and carries the disclaimer that all products may not be available in all states.
So availability for your house gets decided in underwriting. You won’t find it published anywhere.
How to actually run this comparison
These are two different kinds of organization, so run it policy against policy:
- Which legal entity issues this policy? Get the name off the declarations page or the quote, not off the letterhead.
- What is that entity’s current AM Best rating, and on what date was the action? A dated, sourced rating beats a confident one. If the proposal can’t name the entity, it can’t support the rating.
- Is this admitted or surplus lines? An admitted company files its forms and rates with the state and sits behind the state guaranty fund. A surplus lines company does neither. That’s a fact to know, and it isn’t by itself a reason to walk away.
- What does the dwelling settlement provision say? Above the limit, below the limit, and in cash instead of rebuilding. Chubb publishes its extended replacement cost wording. Ask for the equivalent provision in writing from anyone else.
- Who services this at renewal, and how many intermediaries sit between me and the underwriter?
For a second read on a proposal you’ve been given, compare your coverage or book a private client coverage review. For whether this market fits your household at all, see is private client insurance worth it and standard versus high value home insurance.
Sources
Chubb, High Value Homeowners Insurance (retrieved September 24, 2026); Chubb, Masterpiece Homeowners brochure, form 02-01-0207 Rev. 3/25; Chubb, Replacement Cost FAQ, Rev. 08/2022. AM Best, AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Chubb Limited and Its Subsidiaries, January 16, 2026 (retrieved September 24, 2026). Private Client Select, legal notice, home and homeowners pages (retrieved September 23, 2026). Private Client Select, Private Client Select Forms Exclusive Distribution Partnership with Ryan Specialty for Excess & Surplus Lines, July 25, 2024. Private Client Select, Ross Bowie chief executive appointment release, January 8, 2025. Insurance Journal, January 6, 2026.