If somebody is comparing Chubb against AIG Private Client for you in 2026, stop and fix the premise. AIG Private Client Group is not a current brand. The business is Private Client Select Insurance Services LLC, and it is not structurally the same kind of thing as Chubb at all. One is an insurance company. The other is a managing general underwriter writing on insurance company paper.
That is not a gotcha. Both structures are ordinary and both are used by serious organisations. But a comparison that treats them as two interchangeable carriers will get the most important question wrong, which 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 finalised the agreement in April 2023. The transaction closed in 2023. The resulting organisation 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 do not 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 but is accurate and relevant. 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. If you are comparing private client markets, the leadership of this segment moves between them, which is worth remembering when a proposal leans on a name.
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 licence numbers 6009488 and 2N60097. It designs the product, underwrites within delegated authority and services the account. It is not the company that carries the risk.
Neither structure is a red flag. What matters is that you know which question you are asking. With Chubb, “what is the carrier’s financial strength” has one answer. With Private Client Select, it has two parts: who is the paper, 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 is 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 is also an excess and surplus arm in the story. 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,” with the announcement itself stating the arrangement was subject to regulatory approval. As of our review of the Private Client Select legal notice on September 23, 2026, Marbleshore Specialty does not appear in the AIG member company table on that page. We are therefore not saying that Private Client Select writes surplus lines on Marbleshore paper in all fifty states today. That is an open item, not a fact.
And here is the gap that matters most on this page. 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, for this article. Private Client Select itself, as a managing general underwriter, does not carry a financial strength rating, and it would be a category error to publish one for it. So we are not publishing a rating. The correct step for a reader is to ask which entity is issuing the policy, then look that entity up on AM Best directly and note 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 rather than the letter alone. 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 entity groups, 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 are not named in the public personal lines material we reviewed, so the declarations page remains 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 is no direct channel.
Private Client Select’s distribution is two-layered. 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. Exclusive wholesale broker governs excess and surplus placements. It does not mean everything routes through Ryan Specialty, and it does not describe the retail channel. Private Client Select also runs its own broker portal and broker login, which indicates a direct retail broker relationship alongside the wholesale arrangement. It does not publish a public appointment application, so how a retail agency gains access is not something we can describe from public material.
The practical consequence is the same either way. You need a licensed intermediary, and you should know how many are in the chain, because that affects who answers the phone at renewal. Our guide to choosing a private client insurance advisor covers the questions that surface it.
Products, compared as published
Chubb’s published personal lines around the home include the Masterpiece homeowners form, condominium and cooperative coverage on a separate Masterpiece form, valuable articles insurance split into Jewelry, Arts, Wines and Spirits and Your Collections, flood, personal umbrella and excess liability, and home appliance and equipment breakdown coverage. It positions valuables as separate policies rather than an endorsement afterthought.
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, personal liability limits ranging from $1 million to $100 million, and a deductible waiver where the base deductible is $50,000 or less and the covered loss exceeds $100,000, in most states. The footnote travels with that waiver: terms may vary by state, and it does not 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 become 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.
Note what is not on that list: flood and personal cyber. Do not assume either is offered. Ask.
Private Client Select publishes a risk mitigation illustration rather than a schedule of coverage terms: a rural secondary home declined elsewhere for fire department distance, where its Risk Mitigation Services experts evaluated fire department response times and local capabilities in order to underwrite based on specific risk conditions. That is a carrier-supplied example of underwriting approach, not a coverage term, and it should be read as one.
Here is a real gap. Private Client Select does not publish the settlement language for its homeowners product in the material we reviewed, so we cannot set its dwelling settlement basis alongside Chubb’s extended replacement cost wording. If settlement terms are the deciding factor for you, and on a high value home they usually are, 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 are 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 also publishes no dwelling value minimum. 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 are not sourced from Chubb and we will not repeat them.
On state availability, neither answer is usable 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 is producer licensure. It is not 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.
The consequence is the same either way. Availability for your house is an underwriting answer, not a published one.
How to actually run this comparison
Because these are two different kinds of organisation, the comparison is not brand against brand. It is policy against policy:
- Which legal entity issues this policy? Get the name off the declarations page or the quote, not 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 cannot name the entity, it cannot support the rating.
- Is this admitted or surplus lines? Surplus lines paper is not backed by a state guaranty fund and is not subject to the same form and rate filing rules. That is a fact to know, not a reason to refuse.
- 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 any competitor.
- Who services this at renewal, and how many intermediaries are between me and the underwriter?
For a second read on a proposal you have 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.