New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the largest mutual life-insurance company in the United States, and one of the largest life insurers in the world, ranking #80 on the 2015 Fortune 500 list, with about $512 billion in total assets under management, and more than $19 billion in surplus and AVR. In 2007, NYLIC achieved the best possible ratings by the four independent rating companies (Standard & Poor's, AM Best, Moody's and Fitch). Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds.
History
The company was founded in 1845 as the Nautilus Insurance Company in New York City, with assets of $17,000. It was renamed the New York Life Insurance Company in 1849. Its first headquarters were at 58 Wall Street from 1845 until 1846 at which time they were moved to 29 Wall Street. Subsequent addresses included 68 Wall Street, 106 Broadway, and 112-114 Broadway. The first president was James DePeyster Ogden, who served from 1845 until 1847. The current New York Life headquarters was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and completed in 1928. The New York Life Building, at 51 Madison Avenue, was constructed during the presidency of Darwin P. Kingsley. As with other early insurance companies in the U.S., in its early years (1846-1848), at the behest of its Southern agents, the company insured the lives of slaves for their owners. These policies were discontinued at the direction of the Trustees on April 19, 1848. The total claims paid on slaves' lives totaled $1,050. Nautilus sold 485 slaveholder life insurance policies during a two-year period in the 1840s. Their trustees voted to end the sale of such policies 15 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1860, before state laws required it, New York Life developed the non-forfeiture option, the predecessor to the guaranteed cash values of modern policies, under which a policy remains in force even if a premium payment is missed. It was also the first American life insurance company to pay a cash dividend to policyholders, and the first U.S. company to issue policies to women at the same rates as men. Susan B. Anthony was one of their first female policy holders, and her father worked for NYLIC. In 1896, New York Life became the first company to insure people with disabilities and the first to issue a policy with a disability benefit that presumes total disability to be permanent after a predetermined period.
In the late 1990s, New York Life was one of several large mutual life insurers to back a New York State bill that would permit the formation of a mutual holding company (MHC), a corporate structure that could preserve mutuality for policyholders, while providing a company access to capital markets without the full demutualization of the organization. CEO Sy Sternberg himself argued strongly in favor of the bill, which was ultimately defeated. The NYLIC board of directors subsequently reaffirmed its commitment to remaining a mutual, and the company strongly and publicly embraced this decision through a series of advertisements.
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Financial crisis of early 21st Century
According to their Report to Policyholders 2007, in early 2007 the company's managers became concerned about the state of credit markets, so in February 2007 "based on our belief that the markets were acting irrationally" New York Life decided to move much of its cash flow into safer investments such as US Treasury bonds. "By August 2007, the credit market problems we had feared were front page news," the Report notes.
In November 2008, the company announced it would not participate in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. "The company can meet all of its strategic objectives without government capital, its businesses are strong and profitable, and it is committed to remaining a mutual company operating for the sole benefit of its policyholders," states a company press release.
Theodore "Ted" Mathas, president and CEO in 2008, said at the time of the financial crisis that New York Life is "built for times like these." This phrase became the title for the 2008 report to policyholders. Ted Mathas becomes the company chairman on June 1, 2009.
New York Life maintains "superior" financial ratings from A.M. Best, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, all of which have reaffirmed the ratings during the financial crisis of autumn 2008.
Business scope
Both NYL (and its primary American insurance subsidiary, New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation) are licensed to do business in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The company also sells annuities and long-term care insurance; mutual funds through its subsidiary NYLIFE Securities, a registered broker-dealer; and provides institutional asset-management and retirement-plan services from subsidiary New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM).
International Operations
Operation in Mexico.
New York Life Insurance buildings
The New York Life Insurance Company has commissioned a number of buildings under the name "New York Life Insurance Building."
- New York Life Building in New York City
- New York Life Insurance Building, Chicago
- New York Life Insurance Building (Kansas City)
- New York Life Insurance Building, Montreal
- New York Palace (Budapest)
- New York Life Insurance Building (Amsterdam)
- Torre New York Life in Mexico City
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