Unum Group is a Fortune 500 Chattanooga, Tennessee, formerly known as UnumProvident. Unum Group was created by the merger of 1999 Unum Corporation and The Provident Companies and consists of three different businesses - Unum US, Unum UK, and Colonial Life. Underwriters include The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and the Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company. Unum is the top disability insurance both in the United States and United Kingdom and also offers other insurance products including accidents, critical illness and life insurance.
As of December 2016, Unum has 9,400 full-time employees and annual revenues of $ 11.047 billion. Richard McKenney has led Unum as its CEO since April 1, 2015.
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History
Founded as Unum
Union Mutual Life Insurance was founded in 1848 in Maine. The company issued its first policy, which included founding life and company president Elisha B. Pratt for $ 5,000, on October 1, 1849. The Union Mutual main office was then located in Boston, Massachusetts, where Pratt lived. Union Mutual remained headquartered in Boston until 1881, when the state of Maine passed a law requiring the headquarters and the headquarters of all insurance companies established by the state to be placed within the state. The company moved to Portland, Maine.
In 1940, the company acquired most of the accident and health insurance business of Massachusetts Accident Company. This acquisition is the first expansion of Union Mutual outside of individual life insurance and endowment. In 1969, Union Mutual established the first holding company in the insurance industry, which facilitated the expansion and diversification of sustainable enterprises. Union Mutual also established its group's disability business in the 1960s. The group's inability will be the company's flagship product.
Union Mutual became the first major insurer to demutualize in 1986. Company CEO Colin Hampton has been driving demutualization since 1970 and the company officially started the conversion process into a publicly owned company in January 1985. Union Mutual, now renamed Unum , began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1986.
The company also started selling poorly performing businesses during the 1980s. From 1982 to 1990, Unum left many insurance products, including health insurance, individual life insurance, general investment contracts, and individual and retirement annuities. Under the leadership of the then CEO, James Orr, the company shifted its focus to long-term disability insurance group.
In March 1990, Unum acquired National Employers Life Assurance Holdings, which at the time was the largest defective insurer in the UK. The company later acquired Duncanson & amp; Holt, reinsurance and insurance guarantees for the accident and health insurance sector. In 1993, Unum acquired the Colonial Company, the parent company of Colonial Life & amp; Accident Insurance Company. Colonial focuses on individual insurance products, including accidents, cancer and life insurance policies. Unum began offering individual disability policies under the Unum brand once again in 1995.
Growth as a Provident company
The Provident Company was established in Chattanooga, Tennessee in May 1887 as Mutual Medical Aid and Accident Insurance Company. The company initially specializes in providing medical insurance-aid and accidents to employees in high-risk industries, including miners and coal workers. Within a few months, the company's founders became concerned that a single disease outbreak would drive the company into bankruptcy. Mutual Medical Aid and Accident repurchase all outstanding medical-aid policies and rejoin the Accident Insurance Company Provider. Provident only issued an accident policy.
In 1892, Thomas Maclellan and John McMaster bought a 50% stake in the company for $ 1000. Both men bought the remaining 50% equity in 1895 and Maclellan was the sole proprietor and president of the company in 1900. Maclellan reorganized the company from being co- same to the stock company in 1910.
Thomas Maclellan served as Provident president until he was hit by a car and unexpectedly died in 1916. Robert Maclellan, son of Thomas, took over as Provident presidency following his father's death. Provident began selling life insurance the following year, in 1917, and the first life insurance policy issued by the company included the life of Robert Maclellan. The company also began offering rail insurance.
Provident wrote his first group policy in 1924. The company expanded its operations with its 1926 acquisition of a Standard Accident Company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Provident operated in 34 countries in 1928. It also acquired Southern Surety Company in 1931 and Meridian Insurance of West Virginia in 1938. The company expanded to Canada in 1948.
In November 1993, J. Harold Chandler became president and chief executive officer of Provident. Chandler previously served as a senior executive at NationsBank. Chandler started a corporate restructuring in the Provident, which included the 1995 sale of a health-related business to Healthsource for $ 231 million. Provident also increased its focus on individual disability and life policies with the 1997 acquisition of Paul Revere Corporation, an individual disability insurance provider based in Worcester, Massachusetts, from Textron for $ 1.2 billion. Paul Revere's purchase makes Provident the largest individual disability provider in the country.
Unum Group (1999-present)
Unum and Provident announced their intention to join in November 1998. When the merger was completed in 1999, the new company, named UnumProvident, is the largest insurer of disability insurance in the United States. Then-Unum chairman and chief executive James Orr is preserved as chairman and CEO of UnumProvident, headquartered in Portland, Maine.
The Chief Operating Officer of the Company J. Harold Chandler, who served as the chief executive of the Provident before the merger, replaced Orr as CEO of UnumProvident in November 1999. The company sold Provident National Assurance, the parent company for life insurance and variable annuity business, for Allstate in 2001. In 2002, UnumProvident moved its headquarters from Portland, Maine to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Former Company Provider is headquartered in Chattanooga.
Unum received negative attention in 2002, when the California regulator fined Unum, and alleged that the company did not exactly deny long-term disability insurance claims. Unum states that "only 2% of policyholders who filed a claim to the company last year [2001] were found to be inaccessible, an amount consistent with previous experience."
UnumProvident acquired the Sun Life Financial group's insurance business in 2003. Thomas Watjen replaced Orr as CEO of UnumProvident later that year. The company also sells Japanese and Argentinean businesses.
In 2004, Unum signed a regulatory settlement agreement (RSA) with an insurance regulator in more than 40 countries. The settlement is related to the handling of Una's disability claims and requires the company "to make significant changes in corporate governance, apply revisions to the claim procedure and provide for full re-examination of the revised claims and disability insurance claim decisions after the January 2005 effective date of the RSA." Review was completed in 2008, resulting in a 41.7% reversal, "in whole or in part", and an additional $ 676.2 million of the benefits paid nationally by Unum. The state press release of Maine announced the results of praising regulators for their work and the company to be obedient.
In 2007, UnumProvident was renamed Unum. The Unum Moniker was last used by Unum Corporation before the 1999 merger. In 2012 and 2013, Unum partnered with the American Consumer Federation to release a report examining the use of disability insurance by American workers. According to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics cited by the report, two-thirds of American workers do not carry disability insurance policies. In addition, the report found that, among other things, workers only knew little about disability insurance, although expects financial difficulties if they can not work.
The company was involved with the controversial British Welfare Reform Bill in 2007 and was investigated by the BBC in the UK at the time.
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Company structure
Unum is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company has additional offices in Portland, Maine; Columbia, South Carolina; Worcester, Massachusetts; Glendale, California; New Delhi, India and at Milton Court, Dorking, Surrey, England. Thomas Watjen served as president and chief executive of Unum from 2003 until his retirement in 2015. Watjen became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unum on May 21, 2015. He succeeds as President and CEO by Rick McKenney.
Unum is divided into three business segments: Unum US, Unum UK and Colonial Life. It provides disability insurance, as well as group benefits, life insurance and other services.
Awards
- The 100 Most Richest Company in America, Forbes 100 2013
- The Leading Company in Forbes America 2012-2013
- Newsweek Green Companies 2012
- Recognition Center Political Accountability 2011
- The Dow Jones Sustainability Index of North America 2010-2012
- Human Rights Campaign Index 2009-2011
- UK Corporate Advisory Award - Best Risk Providers 2012-2013
- UK Health Insurance Award - Best Risk Group Provider 2011-2012
- UK Cover Excellence Awards - Best Group Income Protection 2011
See also
- List of US insurance companies
References
External links
- www.unum.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia