Located in Northbrook, Illinois, the Allstate Insurance Corporation is the United States’ largest publicly held personal lines insurer, and is a Fortune 100 company with $156.4 billion in assets. Allstate sells 13 major lines of insurance, including life insurance. The “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate” ad is one of the most well known corporate branding statements in American history. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of the Sears, Roebuck, & Co. group of companies, and became a publicly traded company in 1933. The name “Allstate” was taken from a tire that Sears sold in its automobile parts division, and in fact the company began as a mail-order automobile insurance company.
In 1952, the Allstate Foundation was created to partner with non-profit organizations and help to improve life in poor neighborhoods around the United States. A few years later, on September 3rd 1957, the new Allstate Life Insurance Company sold policy #000001, which was a mortgage cancellation policy, to Dale and Norma Jean Huddlestun of West Liberty, Illinois. Within six years, Allstate Life had $1 billion of insurance in force, having reached that mark faster than any previous company.
The very next year, 1964, Allstate formed the Allstate Insurance Company of Canada and Allstate Life Insurance Company of Canada. Then in 1975 Allstate first took life insurance to the Japanese market through a joint venture with Sears and Seibu Retail. 20 years later Sears spun off its remaining ownership of Allstate to Sears shareholders, which made Allstate an independent, 100{da74ea48cec7d1c659e4125ffe517180d7bd6cbbe5631d32f11d21c45900f39b} publicly held corporation.
Allstate prides itself on a powerful corporate governance and a corporate philosophy that puts high standards of customer service and ethical ideals before all other things. The company keeps its work environment fast-paced and demands personal initiative and creative thinking from its employees. Allstate also actively seeks to have as much diversity as possible in its customer base, its employees, and the demographics that it serves.
The company has many regional offices:
California (Rancho Cordova)
Capital (Fairfax, Virginia)
Florida (St. Petersburg)
Midwest (Buffalo Grove, Illinois)
New Jersey (Bridgewater)
New York (Hauppauge)
North Central (Farmington Hills, Michigan)
Northeast (Wayne, Pennsylvania)
Northwest (Bothell, Washington)
Southeast (Atlanta, Georgia)
Southern (Nashville, Tennessee)
Southwest (Phoenix, Arizona)
Texas (Irving)
West Central (Englewood, Colorado)
Allstate’s life insurance division seeks to protect people from the adverse effects of an untimely death. The company offers many different term and permanent life insurance products so that different people can use life insurance as part of their customized financial plan.
The range of the types of people that Allstate covers with its life insurance products includes:
* Parents who want to make sure their children are cared for
* Those with debts they don’t want to pass on to loved ones
* People who want to lock in a lower insurance rate while they’re young
* Homeowners who want to make sure their family can pay off the mortgage if they should die
* Families who rely on a stay-at-home parent
* Entrepreneurs who want to protect their business
* Those who want to leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren
Today Allstate is the United States’ 13th largest life insurance company based on amount of insurance in force. The arm of the company that sells life insurance products is known as Allstate Financial and also offers annuities and savings and investment products. Allstate seeks to cultivate and maintain “high value lifetime” clients.
A.M. Best gives Allstate an A+ rating. It has received this rating from Best for several years, except for a B+ for its Allstate Floridian Insurance Company Subsidiary which had agents involved in a churning scandal. Allstate is typically deemed conservative in its policies, with a good investment strategy, efficiency in its operations and technology, and good ratings for its underwriting and selling efforts.