Genworth Financial Inc GNW

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Insurance & Reinsurance
Overall moat score
43/100
Developing

About Genworth Financial Inc

Genworth Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides mortgage and long-term care insurance products in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Enact, Long-Term Care Insurance, and Life and Annuities. The Enact segment offers primary mortgage, and mortgage insurance products, and contract underwriting services. The Long-Term Care Insurance segment offers long-term care insurance products that are intended … Full GNW analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Consistent Capital Returns Through Cycles Capital adequacy stability is high (score 1.00), demonstrating resilience through insurance market cycles.
  • Consistent Investment Income Investment consistency is high (score 0.82), reflecting a stable portfolio with predictable float income.

Key risks

  • Below-Peer Underwriting Margins Gross margin at 0th percentile and operating margin at 9.1th percentile indicate weak underwriting discipline vs peers.
  • Below-Peer Pricing Margins Premium margin signal is weak (score 0.05), with operating margin at 4.9% — below peers.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Underwriting Discipline

Developing
39

Where GNW ranks in Insurance - Life

Genworth Financial Inc ranks #17 of 21 scored companies in Insurance - Life by moat score — the top 81%. The widest moat in the group is Primerica, Inc. (PRI) at 78/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near GNW in Insurance - Life
# Company Moat score Rating
13 Brighthouse Financial, Inc. - D BHFAP 54/100 Moderate
14 CNO Financial Group, Inc. CNO 50/100 Moderate
15 Atlantic American Corporation AAME 49/100 Developing
16 Citizens, Inc. CIA 43/100 Developing
17 Genworth Financial Inc GNW 43/100 Developing
18 Manulife Financial Corporation MFC 41/100 Developing
19 Jackson Financial Inc. JXN 31/100 Developing
20 F&G Annuities & Life, Inc. FG 24/100 Weak
21 Abacus Life, Inc. ABL 23/100 Weak

See every Insurance & Reinsurance company ranked by moat score →

How GNW scores on the Insurance & Reinsurance defenses

Underwriting Discipline

Score 39 · 25% of the moat score

Underwriting discipline is the core insurance moat, and it consists mostly of the willingness to lose business.

Float Investment Quality

Score 52 · 20% of the moat score

Float is the money an insurer holds between collecting premiums and paying claims — capital it invests but does not own.

Pricing Power

Score 32 · 18% of the moat score

For an insurer, pricing power is the ability to push rate ahead of claims inflation and keep the policyholders anyway.

Capital Strength & Solvency

Score 59 · 17% of the moat score

Capital is what lets an insurer credibly promise to pay a claim that has not happened yet, and it is scrutinised by regulators and rating agencies alike.

Operational Efficiency

Score 16 · 12% of the moat score

The expense ratio — what it costs to acquire and administer a policy — is the half of the combined ratio management fully controls.

Scale & Diversification

Score 58 · 8% of the moat score

Diversification is a real economic advantage in insurance rather than a portfolio preference: risks spread across perils, geographies and lines are less likely to arrive at once, so the same capital supports more premium.

How each Insurance & Reinsurance defense is measured, in full →

Understanding GNW's moat

What is Genworth Financial Inc's moat score?

Genworth Financial Inc (GNW) scores 42 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #17 of 21 scored companies in Insurance - Life, the top 81%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 22 companies in Insurance - Life. Its strongest defense is Capital Strength & Solvency (59/100) and its weakest is Operational Efficiency (16/100).

How does Genworth Financial Inc compare with other Insurance - Life companies?

Genworth Financial Inc ranks #17 of 21 scored companies in Insurance - Life by moat score. The widest moat in Insurance - Life is Primerica, Inc. (PRI) at 78/100. The companies ranked closest are Citizens, Inc. (CIA) at 42 just above it and Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) at 41 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Insurance & Reinsurance in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 22 companies in Insurance - Life. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Genworth Financial Inc scored with the Insurance & Reinsurance template?

An insurer is paid before it knows what its product cost, and invests the money in the meantime. Profit therefore comes from two sources that must both work: pricing risk better than rivals, and earning a return on the float those premiums create. The Insurance template scores that pair, along with the capital that lets a company survive the year in which the losses arrive together.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Genworth Financial Inc?

The Insurance & Reinsurance template measures 6 defenses, and GNW scores: Underwriting Discipline (39), Float Investment Quality (52), Pricing Power (32), Capital Strength & Solvency (59), Operational Efficiency (16), Scale & Diversification (58). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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