Bankers Life

Last updated
Bankers Life
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Insurance
Founded1932
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, United States
Products Annuities
Health insurance
Life insurance
Parent CNO Financial Group
Website www.bankerslife.com

The Bankers Life and Casualty Company, doing business as Bankers Life, is a private American health insurance company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1932 as a mutual life insurance company, the company has been a subsidiary of CNO Financial Group since 1992. Bankers Life has 1.4 million policyholders across the United States and Canada, most of whom are within the company's target demographic of middle-aged and retirement-aged adults with annual household incomes between $25,000 and $75,000.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Overview

The company's insurance products include life insurance, [1] long-term care insurance, [2] annuities, [3] and Medicare products, including plans for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. The company's in-house supplemental health insurance includes plans for critical illnesses and Medicare supplements, [4] [5] with vision and dental coverage sold through a partnership with Humana.[ citation needed ]

Bankers Life sells its policies through a network of over 5,000 insurance agents based in over 320 offices throughout the United States.[ citation needed ]

History

Early years

The Bankers Life and Casualty Company was established in 1932 as a mutual life insurance company in Chicago, Illinois. [6] In contrast to most other life insurance companies, whose costs included salaries for accountants, sales agents, officers, and actuaries, Bankers Life minimized its overhead as a means of undercutting the monthly insurance premiums of its competitors. By June 1935, however, corporate mismanagement rendered the company insolvent by $631.11 ($14,025 in 2023), resulting in the seizure of its assets for liquidation by the Illinois Insurance Department. [6] On July 2, 1935, the company was sold to John D. MacArthur for $2,500 ($55,558 in 2023), who began running it from the office of his existing insurance company, Marquette Life. [6] [7]

Under MacArthur, the company employed its policy of minimal overhead to undercut the $10 ($222.00 in 2023) minimum monthly premiums of competitors with $1, $2, and $5 monthly premium policies. [8] [9] To sell more policies without hiring additional sales agents, the company began mailing its sales pitches to middle-income families, a demographic traditionally underserved by the insurance industry. [10] [9] By combining these methods with the mass-marketing and brand management techniques of large American manufacturers, the company grew from having $5,802 ($128,940 in 2023) in assets under management and $166,000 in life insurance policies in 1935 to $404,598 ($8.38 million in 2023) in assets under management and over $20 million in life insurance policies by 1941. [11] [10] Having outgrown the office of Marquette Life, Bankers Life moved to a four-story building in Mayfair that would serve as its headquarters for the following four decades. [10]

By 1942 MacArthur sought to gain ownership of the company from its policyholders by converting it from a mutual insurance company to a joint-stock company. [12] In September 1942 he established two shell companies, of which one, the Illinois Standard Life Insurance Company, would serve as the new company. [12] In December he merged Bankers Life, the second shell company, and the Hotel Men's Mutual Benefit Association—another life insurance company acquired by MacArthur—into Illinois Standard Life to form the West Side Assessment Life Insurance Company, which was subsequently renamed the Bankers Life and Casualty Company. [12] [13] While the Hotel Men's Mutual Benefit Association did not bring many new policyholders to Bankers Life, the Illinois Insurance code allowed the new company to assume the former's founding date of January 17, 1879 as its own. [13] [14] Now the president and sole shareholder of Bankers Life, MacArthur expanded the company's marketing efforts with a $105,000 magazine advertising contract. [13] [15] Despite the new Bankers Life being largely identical to its former iteration, advertisements promoting it often made use of Hotel Men's 1879 founding date via claims such as "Chicago’s First Insurance Company—Established 1879". [13]

Expansion

Between 1943 and 1946 the company opened branch offices in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, and West Virginia, the success of which enabled it to expand its operations across 14 states by 1951. [16] The company's rapid expansion was fueled by a staff that included sales agents, claims adjusters, billing processors, and addressograph operators, with the staff at its headquarters growing from 50 employees in 1940 to over 2,000 by 1955. [17] [16] Bankers Life diversified its business by marketing health insurance policies under its White Cross brand, [18] becoming one of the largest health and accident insurance companies in the United States by 1956. [11] The establishment of Medicare in July 1965 led Bankers Life and other health insurance companies to develop and market Medicare supplement policies to pay for costs not covered under the new program. [9]

In early 1970 a life-threatening bout of stomach cancer gave MacArthur concern about the potential impact of estate taxes on his fortune. [19] On October 18, 1970 he established the MacArthur Foundation, a private foundation that would inherit the majority of his estate after his death and put it to use in support of charitable causes. [20] [21] While this included his position as sole shareholder of Bankers Life, the Tax Reform Act of 1969 would require the foundation to eventually divest it. [22] In October 1974 MacArthur resigned as president of Bankers Life, naming Robert Ewing as his successor. [23] [24]

By 1977 the company had become the second largest health and accident insurance company in the United States, with a workforce of nearly 4,000 employees across 47 states (excluding California, New Jersey, and New York), Washington, D.C., and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. [24] Its yearly net income had grown to $22 million ($118 million in 2023) by 1976, with $1.04 billion ($5.23 billion in 2023) of assets under management by the end of 1977. [24]

Post-MacArthur

Upon MacArthur's death in 1978 his shares in Bankers Life, worth over $415 million ($2.22 billion in 2023), passed to the MacArthur Foundation. [20] [25] On October 30, 1984, the foundation sold Bankers Life for $382 million to the Texas-based Great Southern Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of the Louisville, Kentucky based I.C.H. Corporation, an insurance industry holding company. [26] [14] [9] On November 9, 1992, I.C.H. Corporation sold Bankers Life for $600 million to Conseco, a Carmel, Indiana based insurance industry holding company, known as CNO Financial Group since 2010. [26] [14] In 1993 Bankers Life moved its headquarters into the Merchandise Mart building in downtown Chicago. [26] On January 1, 2000, Conseco merged another of its insurance industry subsidiaries, Certified Life Insurance Company, into Bankers Life. [14]

In 2012, Bankers Life processed about 8.5 million claims and paid out $1.3 billion in policy benefits.[ citation needed ] In 2015, Bankers Life had $19 billion in assets under management.[ citation needed ]

Sponsorships

Bankers Life is a national sponsor of the Alzheimer's Association, organizing annual fundraising campaigns since 2003 to raise public awareness of the disease. [27] As of 22 August 2023, its campaigns have helped raise over $7 million in support of the Alzheimer's Association's care, education, and research programs. [28]

In 2011 CNO Financial Group transferred the naming rights to the home arena of the Indiana Pacers NBA team to Bankers Life, renaming it from Conseco Fieldhouse to Bankers Life Fieldhouse. [29] In March 2018 CNO opted not to renew its naming sponsorship of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, which expired on June 30, 2019. [30] On September 27, 2021 it was renamed Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the financial platform Gainbridge becoming its new naming partner. [31]

Related Research Articles

Hoosier hysteria is the state of excitement surrounding basketball in Indiana or, more specifically, the Indiana high school basketball tournament. The most famous example occurred in 1954, when Milan defeated Muncie Central to win the state title.

John Donald MacArthur was an American insurance magnate, real estate investor and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.

Henry Newton Rowell "Hal" Jackman is a Canadian billionaire businessman who served as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1991 to 1997. He is the son of former Member of Parliament Harry Jackman and philanthropist Mary Rowell Jackman. His mother was the daughter of another former Member of Parliament, Newton Rowell. His sister, Nancy Ruth, is a philanthropist who was appointed to the Senate in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act</span>

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's 38-year history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gainbridge Fieldhouse</span> Indoor arena in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

Gainbridge Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It opened in November 1999 to replace Market Square Arena. The arena is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. The fieldhouse also hosts college basketball games, indoor concerts, and ice hockey.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. is an American financial services holding company based in Carmel, Indiana. Its insurance subsidiaries provide life insurance, annuity and supplemental health insurance products to more than four million customers in the United States. These products are distributed through independent agents, career agents and direct to customers through television advertising and direct mail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Northern Railway</span> Former railway company

The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway, the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browning School</span> Private school in New York City

The Browning School is a college preparatory school for boys located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Founded in 1888 by John A. Browning, the school is a member of the New York Interschool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiana Farmers Coliseum</span> Indoor arena in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

The Indiana Farmers Coliseum is a 6,500-seat indoor multi-use arena, located on the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. The Indiana Farmers Coliseum is home to both the Indy Fuel of the ECHL and the IUPUI Jaguars of the NCAA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canucks Sports & Entertainment</span>

Canucks Sports & Entertainment, previously known as Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment, is a Canadian sports and entertainment company in Vancouver, British Columbia that owns and operates the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League, the Vancouver Warriors of the National Lacrosse League, and their home arena, Rogers Arena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jefferies Financial Group</span> American financial services company

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is an American financial services company based in New York City and listed on the Fortune 1000.

Ellerbe Becket was an independent Minneapolis, Minnesota-based architectural, engineering, interior design and construction firm until 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinkle Fieldhouse</span> Historic indoor arena in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

Hinkle Fieldhouse is a basketball arena on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Completed in early 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the United States until 1950. The facility was renamed Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1966 in honor of Butler's longtime coach and athletic director, Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle. It is the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in use. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987, Hinkle Fieldhouse is sometimes referred to as "Indiana's Basketball Cathedral."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial Penn</span> American insurance company

The Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company is an American life insurance company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded by philanthropist and AARP co-founder Leonard Davis, owned by CNO Financial Group. Colonial Penn, which began as an insurance provider through AARP focused on people over 65, now has a marketing campaign that is aimed at people between the age of 50 and 85, specializing in “guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance“ and to help their families cover funeral costs after the individual dies. The company's name comes from the state it was founded (Pennsylvania), which was part of colonial America, hence the name “Colonial Penn”.

Catherine Terese MacArthur was an American philanthropist. With the estate of her husband, businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur, she co-founded the MacArthur Foundation, one of the 10 largest philanthropic foundations in the United States.

John Roderick MacArthur was a U.S. businessman and philanthropist in Chicago. The J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, a philanthropic organization supporting civil rights in the United States, was established in his name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal American</span>

Universal American is a Fortune 500 company with offices throughout the United States, and headquarters in Rye Brook, New York. The company offered health insurance, and also deals in Medicare managed care plans, and Medicare prescription drug benefits. Its CEO is Richard A. Barasch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philanthropy in the United States</span> Overview article

Philanthropy in the United States is the practice of voluntary, charitable giving by individuals, corporations and foundations to benefit important social needs. Its long history dates back to the early colonial period, when Puritans founded Harvard College and other institutions. Philanthropy has been a major source of funding for various sectors, such as religion, higher education, health care, and the arts. Philanthropy has also been influenced by different social movements, such as abolitionism, women’s rights, civil rights, and environmentalism. Some of the most prominent philanthropists in American history include George Peabody, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Herbert Hoover, and Bill Gates.

The Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals are a series of exhibition halls at the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. The halls opened on June 12, 2021, as a complete redesign of their predecessors, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Gems and Minerals and Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems. The halls feature thousands of rare gems, mineral specimens and pieces of jewelry.

References

  1. ↑ "Make Life insurance a part of your 'life' story". Bankers Life. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  2. ↑ "What is long-term care?". Bankers Life. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Protect and grow your retirement savings". Bankers Life. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Protect your family with supplemental health insurance". Bankers Life. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  5. ↑ "What is Medicare Supplement insurance?". Bankers Life. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 63. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  7. ↑ "About John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur". MacArthur Foundation. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  8. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 65. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Insuring America: Bankers Life and Casualty Company Celebrates 125 Years". CNO Financial Group (Press release). CNO Financial Group. January 15, 2004. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 66. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  11. 1 2 "The History of Bankers Life". bankerslife.com. Archived from the original on December 5, 2023. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  12. 1 2 3 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 67. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 68. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "MARKET CONDUCT EXAMINATION REPORT ON BANKERS LIFE AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY" (PDF). Pennsylvania Insurance Department. April 30, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 11, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  15. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 69. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  16. 1 2 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 93. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  17. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 92. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  18. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 85. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  19. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 127. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  20. 1 2 "Our History". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  21. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 134. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  22. ↑ Klose, Kevin (October 19, 1984). "The Man Who Bucks for Genius" . Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  23. ↑ Pallesen, Gayle (January 7, 1978). "John MacArthur, 80, From Salesman to Modest Billionaire" . Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  24. 1 2 3 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 166. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  25. ↑ Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 172. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  26. 1 2 3 Kriplen, Nancy (2008). The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. AMACOM. p. 176. ISBN   978-0814409626.
  27. ↑ "Bankers Life Planting Seeds of Hope for Alzheimer's Research". CNO Financial Group (Press release). CNO Financial Group. 10 April 2015. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  28. ↑ "CNO Financial Group and Bankers Life Support the Alzheimer's Association with more than $407,000 in Donations in its 21st Annual Fundraising Campaign". CNO Financial Group (Press release). CNO Financial Group. August 22, 2023. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Conseco Fieldhouse Renamed Bankers Life Fieldhouse". Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Press release). 2011-12-22. Archived from the original on 2013-01-19.
  30. ↑ "Fieldhouse to lose Bankers Life moniker after insurer declines to renew naming deal". Indianapolis Business Journal . March 13, 2018. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  31. ↑ "The Home of the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever Renamed Gainbridge Fieldhouse Through Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Gainbridge Partnership". Indiana Pacers. Archived from the original on October 9, 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.