Major insurers and brokers are curbing public references to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies as corporate DEI practices face heightened scrutiny in a shifting political environment.

Despite some companies scaling back or rebranding their DEI initiatives to mitigate potential legal, regulatory and reputational risks, the insurance industry remains broadly committed to fostering an inclusive culture, industry sources say.

President Donald Trump issued executive orders to eliminate “illegal DEI” programs in the federal government and among government contractors after his inauguration in January. A wave of high-profile corporations, including Bank of America, McDonald’s Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Target Corp., have since scaled back their DEI policies.

Some insurers and brokers, including American International Group Inc., Aon PLC and Marsh & McLennan Cos., have removed specific references to diversity from their 10-K annual reports and replaced the language with more neutral or general terms, such as “inclusion,” “wellbeing” and “belonging.”

DEI pages or tabs on some insurer and broker websites have been rebranded as “inclusion and wellbeing,” “belonging, respect and fairness,” “culture and inclusion” and “inclusion and belonging.”

The changes reflect compliance with recent executive orders on discrimination, sources said. AIG, Aon and Marsh McLennan declined to comment.

Some companies have rebranded DEI roles and decentralized DEI responsibilities. There are concerns that professional associations linked to diversity efforts could face funding pressures as companies reevaluate sponsorships, sources said.

Several brokerages, including Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Brown & Brown Inc. and Willis Towers Watson PLC, continued to mention inclusion and diversity in their 10-Ks filed in 2025. Gallagher and WTW reported the percentage of their employees and managers who are racially and ethnically diverse.

WTW has always been focused on attracting, retaining and motivating the best talent, regardless of background, said CEO Carl Hess. “Being an organization where everyone feels comfortable within our walls — that’s not changing,” Mr. Hess said.

Although many DEI programs may have changed, the industry remains committed to fostering an inclusive culture, said Aaisha Hamid, Louisville, Kentucky-based vice president of belonging and engagement at Alliant Insurance Services Inc.

Despite rephrasing language, companies are finding alternative ways to continue the culture-building work, she said.

Alliant disbanded its DEI office and launched a Belonging and Engagement department, for example, while also increasing funding for its employee resource groups, which are open to everyone, she said.

An informal group of around 60 organizations across the industry is understood to have met recently to discuss legal compliance and reaffirm their commitment to DEI.

Brokers with established DEI policies are navigating potential repercussions for public entity business, where policyholders may incorporate DEI factors into requests for proposals when selecting insurance brokers, sources said (see related story below).

Many companies still prioritize DEI initiatives in response to client and employee demands, said T. Kael Coleman, CEO and co-founder of Protecdiv, a Philadelphia-based minority-owned brokerage.

“Many buyers have said ‘I want to have more diversity in my vendors,’ and that can take many forms,” Mr. Coleman said. That includes expecting large, predominantly white institutions to present more diverse teams, he said.

Diverse teams bring new ideas, and “clients are really demanding that,” Mr. Coleman said.

Established partnerships with minority organizations are not significantly affected, said Dorothy Gjerdrum, St. Paul, Minnesota-based senior managing director of Gallagher’s public entity practice.

Gallagher partners with a network of minority- or woman-owned businesses that can provide loss control and other services in the RFP process, Ms. Gjerdrum said.

“There has not been a tremendous movement away from those partnerships where they have been in place for some time and where they’re really valued by our clients,” she said.

Meanwhile, the industry’s focus on hiring and recruitment strategies is likely to continue, sources said.

The insurance sector is not retreating from development programs, leadership pipelines, succession planning or recruitment goals, said Omari Aarons-Martin, executive director and chief operating officer of the National African American Insurance Association in Boston.

There’s broad recognition that gaps persist for women and people of color, Mr. Aarons-Martin said. “Data still supports that those gaps exist,” he said. In the past five years, companies have worked to identify the barriers that led to those gaps and ways to improve access to senior and executive leadership roles for underrepresented groups, he said.

There’s a misconception that diversity is taking priority over expertise, said Brian Fritz, Westfield, New Jersey-based senior executive recruiter at Key Strategies LLC. “That has never happened with our clients,” Mr. Fritz said. Clients consistently want the most qualified person for the job, regardless of background, he said.

Many companies continue to support DEI internally, and employees may leave companies that withdraw support, said Chris Reilly, Tampa, Florida-based president and national chairperson of the U.S. chapter of Link, an LGBTQ+ insurance association.

“You can call it whatever you want to call it. It’s about the way a company values their employees and creates the culture where everybody feels seen, welcome, heard and valued,” he said.

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Public entity procurement process sees few changes despite political shift on DEI

The current DEI climate has not yet significantly affected public entity insurance procurement, sources say.

Some buyers in the sector have incorporated DEI factors into their requests for proposals for several years when selecting insurance brokers as they have sought to ensure diversity among their providers, they said. Initial cautiousness from public entities in the changing political environment has evolved as some states and local governments adopted federal guidelines, affecting RFPs, said Dorothy Gjerdrum, St. Paul, Minnesota-based senior managing director of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s public entity practice.

In the first quarter, an RFP that initially included DEI preferences was later reissued without them, Ms. Gjerdrum said. In oral interviews in another RFP process, an entity probed a broker’s DEI practices, she said.

Entities are complying with whatever the state or local government rules are around DEI, she said, adding, “It really varies by region.”

There hasn’t been a material impact on the RFP process, said Tim Wiseman, university risk officer at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The university is aligned with state and federal directives, he said.

“Any wording or phraseology that might creep into areas that are now either forbidden or restricted” has been thoroughly reviewed, Mr. Wiseman said.

“It hasn’t caused any sort of disruption in our progress or in our ability to continue with our partnerships,” he said.

If RFPs change, it will take a long time, said T. Kael Coleman, CEO and co-founder of Protecdiv, a Philadelphia-based brokerage.

At the municipal level, cities remain highly diverse, and people in those cities value that diversity, Mr. Coleman said.

“There’s going to be a lot of pressure, and I think good pressure, to have diverse vendors,” he said.