Loews Long-Term Care Charge Cuts Third-Quarter Profit

The Tip Desk · November 2, 2026 · 4 min read

Net income attributable to Loews Corporation was $306 million, or $1.50 a share, as CNA booked a $125 million after-tax long-term care reserve charge.

Loews Corporation (L), a diversified company with businesses in insurance, energy, hospitality and packaging, reported net income of $306 million, or $1.50 a share, for the third quarter of 2026, down from $504 million, or $2.43 a share, a year earlier.

The year-over-year decline was concentrated at CNA Financial Corporation, whose net income attributable to Loews fell to $180 million from $371 million. CNA’s annual long-term care reserve assumption update produced an unfavorable after-tax impact of $125 million, on top of lower Property and Casualty underlying underwriting results and higher catastrophe losses. Core income, which excludes investment gains and losses and noncontrolling interests, decreased to $203 million from $409 million a year earlier.

President and chief executive officer Ben Tisch said CNA increased long-term care reserves by $173 million pre-tax, primarily reflecting higher inflation expectations on future claim costs. Under LDTI accounting, the company must update claim-inflation assumptions but is not permitted to reflect higher expected portfolio yields in the reserve calculation, so the inflation charge is recognized immediately while the offsetting yield benefit flows through investment income over time. Tisch said the company expects the economic impact to be closer to breakeven.

During 2026, CNA completed more than $1.3 billion of trades exchanging shorter-duration, BBB-rated bonds yielding 5.5% for longer-duration, A-rated bonds yielding 6.2%. The company said the $125 million after-tax charge will almost entirely be offset by higher investment yields from those actions and future reinvestments. Tisch said active long-term care policy counts have declined 50% since 2015 and are expected to fall another 40% over the next decade, and that CNA maintains a $1.3 billion statutory margin.

Property and Casualty’s combined ratio rose to 97.0% from 92.8% a year earlier, with the underlying combined ratio at 94.2%. The underlying loss ratio of 64.1% was unchanged from the second quarter of 2026 and was attributed mainly to higher loss cost trends and lower-than-expected rate in certain lines. Net earned premiums grew 2% and net written premiums grew 3%. Net investment income was relatively flat, as lower limited partnership returns were offset by higher fixed-income and common-stock income.

Tisch said the insurance market remains competitive and that he would not count on a meaningful improvement in the pricing environment in the near term.

Boardwalk Pipelines’ net income was $85 million, compared with $94 million a year earlier. EBITDA decreased to $262 million from $267 million. The company cited $10 million of net unrealized losses at Continuum and a $9 million impairment related to the relocation of its corporate office. Excluding those items, net income and EBITDA increased $5 million and $14 million, driven by higher gas transportation revenues from higher contracting rates and utilization.

Boardwalk’s revenue backlog grew by almost $600 million in the quarter, largely from the Carthage Crossing project, which is expected to cost about $90 million to add compression from Carthage, Texas, to northern Louisiana. The existing project backlog was $3.6 billion.

Loews Hotels & Co’s net income was $16 million, compared with a net loss of $3 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA increased 25% to $86 million from $69 million, on higher average daily rates and occupied room nights, particularly at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel after its renovation and at Arlington properties. Equity income from joint ventures decreased, primarily due to lower average daily rate and higher operating expenses at the Universal Orlando Resort.

Corporate segment net income was $25 million, compared with $42 million a year earlier, primarily due to lower investment income from the parent company trading portfolio.

Total revenues were $4,759 million, compared with $4,671 million a year earlier. Book value per share was $90.24 as of September 30, 2026, down from $90.71 at year-end 2025. Excluding AOCI, book value per share increased to $100.67 from $95.89. The parent company had $4.4 billion of cash and investments and $1.8 billion of debt.

Loews repurchased 1.6 million shares for $167 million in the third quarter, bringing shares outstanding to 202.9 million. An additional 0.6 million shares were repurchased for $67 million between October 1 and October 30, 2026.