Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

Infobox_Company
company_name = Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
company_
company_type = Mutual
company_slogan = Enriching the lives of people we touch.
foundation = 1860
location = New York, New York, USA
key_people = Dennis J. Manning, President and CEO
num_employees = 5,000 (12/31/06)
industry = Insurance: Life & Health
revenue = profit$7.396 Billion USD (2005)
net_income = profit$375 Million USD (2005)
homepage = [http://www.guardianlife.com www.guardianlife.com]

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (GLICOA) is a Fortune 300 company founded in 1860 in New York, New York. It is the fourth largest mutual life insurance company in the United States of America.

Current Business

Guardian has more than 5000 employees and more than 3,100 financial representatives and 86 agencies nationwide, working through 13 affiliate companies and subsidiaries. Guardian has nearly three million customers who hold the company's individual life and disability income insurance and investments products (such as variable annuities, mutual funds, stocks and bonds). It also has another five million customers covered by its employee benefits, including life, health and dental insurance; pension plans; and 401(k) products. For the fiscal year 2007, the company reported $7.4 billion in sales and $39.5 billion in assets.

History

Guardian founder Hugo Wesendonck, a German civil rights lawyer, participated in the 1848-49 revolution and helped draft a constitution for a united Germany. Accused of treason, he fled post-revolution Europe and landed in the U.S. With start-up funds from fellow German refugees, he opened Germania Life Insurance Company in 1860 on Wall Street in New York, to cover the growing number of German immigrants arriving on American shores. Two years later, he opened a branch in San Francisco and, later, across the country, reaching territories like Colorado, New Mexico and the Dakotas.

In 1868, Germania became the first U.S. insurance company to start an agency in Europe. By the early 1900s, almost half of its business was outside North America, until the pressures of World War I forced it to stop writing business in Europe.

In 1911 the company set up headquarters in New York City's Union Square. In 1917, the company changed its name to Guardian, in response to a break with the fatherland after WWI. In 1999 Guardian relocated back to the Wall Street area (7 Hanover Square), after branching out into financial services.

External links

#Gurdian Life insurance - Who We Are [http://www.guardianlife.com/company_info/who_we_are.

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