Our Competitive Advantages Are Meaningful & Sustainable

Our competitive advantages serve as the foundation of our financial success and help us fulfill our promise to protect our customers. Underlying our competitive advantages are four key enablers that help set us apart – our talent and expertise, industry-leading data and analytics, technology and financial strength.

Click on each of the competitive advantages in the graphic to learn more.

Risk Selection, Underwriting & Pricing Segmentation

Data and analytics influence the decisions we make and drive innovation throughout the organization – from the development and delivery of our products and services to risk selection, underwriting and pricing. But data and analytics are only as good as the people interpreting them – which is why we match our strength in data and analytics with a deep industry expertise. We regularly introduce new tools and enhance our training and recruitment practices with the goal of ensuring that our expertise in data and analytics stays at the cutting edge. In addition, we are increasingly transforming our data into actionable insights to improve our decision-making.

• Approximately 1,900 employees working in analytics, including actuaries, data scientists and statisticians, data engineers, and data and information analysts.
• An Underwriting function of 4,000+ people, with an average tenure at Travelers of more than 12 years, supported by 4,000+ operations specialists.
• A broad appetite with a deep underwriting specialization in more than 40 industries.

Product Breadth & Specialization

We engage broadly across nine major lines of insurance in three segments – Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance and Personal Insurance. Our portfolio is balanced across these lines of business and further diversified by geography and customer type and size.

• Leading U.S. commercial insurance writer in 2023, with a top-five position in five major product lines, including number one in workers compensation, commercial multi-peril and surety.¹
• A top-10 writer of U.S. personal automobile and homeowners insurance², and a leading personal insurance writer with independent agents.³
• Approximately two-thirds of domestic premiums from liability lines (e.g., workers compensation, management liability, general liability, auto insurance) in 2023.
• Approximately one-third of domestic premiums from property lines (e.g., homeowners, commercial property) in 2023.

Distribution Relationships

Domestically, we are the carrier of choice among independent agencies and brokers. Our agent and broker partners have a deep understanding of customer needs, and they provide us with insights that are a valuable part of our underwriting and risk selection process.

• Top-three carrier with the majority of our distribution partners.¹
• Relationships with more than 15,000 independent agencies and brokers.

¹ 2022 Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Inc. Universe Study.

Claim Services

Our dedicated Claim professionals are trained to deliver high-quality service and handle claims efficiently and with compassion. We strive to:

• Pay what we owe.
• Deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• Use technology, data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Our customers, claimants and business partners benefit from our innovative capabilities, facilities and practices, including:

• Our unique and flexible catastrophe response capability, which is made possible by extensive employee cross-training and advanced workforce management programs. For the overwhelming majority of claims, we do not contract with third-party claim adjusters and instead rely on our own staff to respond to claims. In 2023, we were able to adjust nearly 100% of our catastrophe claims with our own employees, supported by innovative technologies, self-service capabilities and trusted service partners.
• Our use of advanced technology in damage inspections, including smartphone-based virtual inspection tools, aerial imagery and drones, which allow our Claim professionals to work more safely and effectively.
• Our drone fleet; Travelers is one of the largest commercial users of drones, with approximately 200,000 flights conducted by more than 700 certified pilots in 48 states and Canada since the program’s inception.
• A collection of more than 45 predictive models that utilize machine learning and AI, assisting our Claim, medical and fraud professionals to drive optimal customer outcomes and operational efficiency.
• Subrogation recoveries that significantly outperform industry benchmarks.¹ 
• Travelers Claim University, our state-of-the-art training and professional development facility, dedicated to providing technical training and skills-based learning to Claim employees.
• The deliberate cultivation of ethical, customer-centric Claim culture through training, internal communications, management coaching and compliance activities.
• A highly selective hiring process for Claim staff designed to attract, retain and develop employees with empathy, integrity and professional expertise.
• Recognition for Claim professionals who deliver exceptional customer experiences that help build the Travelers brand and business.

Risk Mitigation & Improvement

For more than 110 years, our loss prevention professionals have assisted agents, brokers and customers across the country and around the world. We deliver expertise in safety and risk mitigation through one of the largest Risk Control departments in the industry. In 2023, we completed approximately 120,000 consultations, including the inspection of more than 177,000 objects at 72,000 jurisdictional boiler and pressure vessel inspection locations. This work contributes to the unique risk assessment database we have developed over the past decade to assist us in leveraging our expertise in risk mitigation, risk selection and pricing.

• Travelers Risk Control consultants are backed by highly qualified specialists in areas such as fire protection, product liability, transportation and much more.
• Specialized expertise in public entity exposures, emerging and advanced technology, cybersecurity and resilience, and property valuation for both building and business/personal property.
• Leading provider of risk control services with industry specialization (e.g., construction and manufacturing).
• Enhanced ergonomic assessments for our customers, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
• Proprietary risk assessment database with 200M+ data points that were compiled over more than a decade.
• Sophisticated Industrial Hygiene and Forensics Laboratories.
• Fully functional sprinkler lab for training customers on effective inspection, maintenance and testing of sprinkler systems.