An EY leader has told Insurance Business that the insurance M&A market is "ripe" for larger deals in the second half of 2026, signalling that one of the world's largest advisory firms expects the sector's biggest transactions to clear in the back half of that year.

The characterisation, attributed to an EY leader speaking to Insurance Business, frames H2 2026 as the window when insurance buyers and sellers are most likely to commit to outsized transactions. EY is a longstanding adviser to global insurance carriers and reinsurers on mergers, acquisitions, and corporate-finance mandates.

Why pin the cycle to H2 2026?

The chosen window sits roughly two-and-a-half years from the EY leader's remarks. That horizon is unusually long for a public M&A outlook: most advisory forecasts point 6 to 18 months ahead.

Reading the timing literally, advisers believe the alignment of underwriting cycles, reserve development, regulatory approvals, and capital availability will not produce prime larger-deal conditions until late 2026. Advisers expect mandate work to begin well before that point.

The framing implies EY's insurance desk is telling clients to treat the quarters immediately ahead as preparation, not execution. Sellers, buyers, and intermediaries should use the time to assemble clean target lists, sharpen valuation models, and pre-clear financing.

Who is moving first?

In deal-pipeline terms, intermediaries move first. Sellers and acquirers typically engage Big Four and bulge-bracket advisers months — sometimes years — before signing. An H2 2026 close is consistent with mandate wins already in motion or expected to materialise in the coming quarters.

For chief executives weighing strategic options, the message is one of sequencing: capital is positioned to deploy, but the largest cheques will likely wait until the back end of 2026.

How large is "larger"?

EY did not, in the headline statement, define the threshold separating routine insurance transactions from the "larger" tier the firm expects to dominate H2 2026.

Industry conventions typically regard anything above several hundred million dollars as a sizeable insurance transaction, while deals in the multibillion-dollar range remain comparatively rare outside the largest global carriers. The EY leader's comment leaves the definitional cut-off open, leaving readers to infer whether the firm is signalling billion-dollar-plus activity or transactions measured in the high hundreds of millions.

What changes for insurance executives?

• Pipeline work begins now. Carriers weighing scale acquisitions should expect diligence cycles running through 2025 and into 2026, with closings concentrated in H2 2026.
• Buyers align capital. Carriers sitting on undeployed reserves will see the second half of 2026 as the comparative-clearance window for larger transactions.
• Sellers position early. Divesting books and divisions gain advantage by engaging advisers before competitors crowd the same window.

What remains unanswered?

• The EY leader's specific name was not disclosed in the headline attribution.
• Whether the assessment applies primarily to life, property-and-casualty, reinsurance, or specialty lines has yet to be specified.
• Total dollar value of the "larger" tier EY anticipates has not been quantified.
• The geographic distribution of expected activity — US, European, Asia-Pacific — is similarly undefined.

The EY leader's "ripe" assessment, in short, is a forecast of market conditions rather than a roster of announced deals. Insurance executives reading the signal will plan accordingly — counting forward to H2 2026 as the period when the sector's bigger M&A decisions come due, or risk missing the window entirely.