AM Best has revised the outlooks on Hagerty Reinsurance Limited and its affiliate Drivers Edge Insurance Company to stable from positive, the ratings agency said on 13 November 2026.
The agency affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of ‘a-‘ (Excellent) for both entities, leaving the underlying grades untouched even as the forward-looking signal softens.
Hagerty Re, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Drivers Edge, based in Littleton, Colorado, are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Hagerty Insurance Holdings Inc, itself under the umbrella of Hagerty, Inc. (HGTY). The action was corroborated in full by InsuranceNewsNet, which carried identical rating levels and wording.
A round trip on the Hagerty Re outlook
The stable revision closes a loop that opened less than a year ago. AM Best lifted the outlook on the same two entities to positive from stable on 17 December 2025, a rare upward signal for a reinsurer that had only been assigned its A- rating in October 2023 as it prepared to take on direct underwriting risk, according to The Insurer.
That December move was reported independently by the Royal Gazette, which confirmed the same domicile and ownership structure now repeated in this week’s release. Eleven months on, AM Best has walked the outlook back to where it started, without touching the A-/’a-‘ ratings themselves.
Sector backdrop turned less favourable
The reversal lands against a wider recalibration in reinsurance pricing. AM Best separately revised its outlook for the global reinsurance market segment to stable from positive in January 2026, citing accelerated softening in property reinsurance pricing, according to a report carried by StreetInsider. AM Best’s Hagerty release does not explicitly link the two, but the timing places a single-company normalisation inside a sector-wide one.
Higher benchmark yields form part of the same backdrop. The 10-year US Treasury yield stood at 5.10% on 12 November 2026, up from 4.98% prior, FRED data shows — a level that affects insurer investment income on the asset side of the ledger even as underwriting outlooks move independently.
Filings and positioning around the announcement
The outlook revision coincided with a run of Form 4 and Form 4/A filings tied to Hagerty, Inc. and its reporting affiliate Hagerty Holding Corp, lodged with the SEC between 10 and 13 November 2026. The filing index does not disclose share counts or values for these transactions.
Hagerty shares closed at $15.96, little changed on the day and up 2.31% over 20 days, with trading volume running 21% above the 20-day average as of 13 November. FINRA’s daily short-sale data show the stock’s short ratio falling sharply through the period, from 0.633 on 2 November to 0.245 on the day of the announcement, a decline that had already run its course before AM Best’s release went out.
Underlying trading at the parent has been uneven. Hagerty, Inc.’s quarterly filings show revenue of $189.99m in the third quarter of 2025 against $157.69m a year earlier, before easing to $71.24m in the third quarter of 2026 on a narrower reporting basis. None of that detail featured in AM Best’s rating commentary, which confined itself to the reinsurance subsidiaries’ own capital position and underwriting performance.
What the rating actually changed
For policyholders and counterparties, the practical effect is limited: the A- Financial Strength Rating and ‘a-‘ Issuer Credit Ratings stand exactly where they did before December’s upgrade signal arrived. What has shifted is the agency’s view of the trajectory, not the current grade. AM Best’s next scheduled review of Hagerty Re and Drivers Edge will show whether this stable outlook holds or whether the softer reinsurance pricing cycle feeds through to the ratings themselves.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Markets move quickly; figures are correct as sourced at the time of writing. Always do your own research before making financial decisions.
