American Income Life
October 21, 2026
McKINNEY, Texas - October 21, 2026
American Income Life's sales force shrank in the third quarter, according to results released Wednesday by parent company Globe Life Inc. The division, which sells life and supplemental health insurance through its own exclusive agents, averaged 11,331 producing agents in the quarter ended September 30, 2026, down 7 percent from 12,230 a year earlier and down 60 agents from 11,391 in the second quarter.
The smaller agent force showed up in new business. American Income's life net sales, which Globe Life calculates as annualized premium issued minus policies canceled in the first 30 days, came to $96.6 million, essentially flat against $96.5 million in the third quarter of 2025. Health net sales at the division fell 16 percent to $3.9 million from $4.6 million.
The policies already on the books continued to grow. American Income's life premium rose 4 percent to $470.4 million from $451.2 million, and its life underwriting margin, a measure of premium left after claims, commissions and acquisition costs, increased 3 percent to $268.5 million, or 57 percent of premium compared with 58 percent a year earlier. Health premium at the division slipped 1 percent to $31.5 million, while its health underwriting margin jumped to $37.9 million from $14.8 million. Globe Life said that jump was driven mainly by annual assumption updates; excluding those updates, the division's health margin was 65.4 percent of premium versus 59.7 percent a year ago.
American Income remains Globe Life's largest life insurance channel, accounting for more than half of the company's $864.6 million in third-quarter life premium and about 65 percent of its $149.1 million in total life net sales. By comparison, the Liberty National Division grew its average producing agent count 9 percent to 4,187 and its life net sales 7 percent, while the Family Heritage Division held roughly steady at 1,565 agents.
For Globe Life as a whole, third-quarter net income was $361.1 million, or $4.62 per diluted share, compared with $387.8 million, or $4.73 per diluted share, a year earlier. Net operating income, a non-GAAP measure the company uses to track its core business, was $4.84 per diluted share versus $4.81. Total premium revenue grew 7 percent.
The company trimmed its full-year 2026 guidance for net operating income to a range of $15.35 to $15.65 per share. Globe Life attributed the change to two items at its United American General Agency division rather than its core business: high-severity claims at Evry, a group health business it is still building, and a claims processing delay at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that produced about $7 million in excess prior-period Medicare Supplement claims during the quarter. For 2027, the company projected net operating income of $16.10 to $17.10 per share.
Globe Life repurchased 1.1 million shares during the quarter for $185 million and now expects to spend $725 million to $775 million on buybacks for the full year, up from previous guidance of $670 million to $700 million. Management was scheduled to discuss the results with analysts on a conference call on October 22.
American Income Life Insurance Company was founded in 1951 by Harold Goodman and his nephew, Bernard Rapoport, and is based in Waco, Texas. It recruits and trains its own agents, who sell life and supplemental health coverage to working families, including members of labor unions, credit unions and associations. Globe Life, headquartered in McKinney, Texas, reports the business as its American Income Life Division, and the division's producing agent count is one of the figures the company highlights each quarter as a gauge of future sales.