Arthur L. Williams, Jr.

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Arthur L. Williams, Jr.
title = Founder, CEO, & Chairman of A.L. Williams Corporation
birth_date = birth date and age|1942|4|23
birth_place = flagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Cairo, Georgia, USA
occupation = Retired
salary =
networth = lossUS$1.4 billion (2008) [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Arthur-Williams-Jr_DA4B.html Forbes 2008] , accessed on March 6, 2008 ]
spouse = Angela Williams
children = 2


website = [http://www.artwilliams.com/ Art Williams]
footnotes =

Arthur L. Williams, Jr. (Art Williams) is a billionaire insurance executive living in Palm Beach, Florida. He is the founder of A.L. Williams & Associates, known as Primerica Financial Services since 1991.

Early life and Education

Art Williams was born on April 23, 1942 in Cairo, Georgiacite news |author= The 700 Club |authorlink= The 700 Club |title= Art Williams : The Life Coach |url= http://www.cbn.com/700club/guests/bios/Art_Williams111406.aspx |publisher= Christian Broadcasting Network |date= |accessdate=2007-09-02] . He obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University in Starkville and his Master's Degree in Science from Auburn University. From his early days in high school Art always aspired to be a professional football coach.

Life Insurance Industry

In 1965 Art Williams' father suddenly died of a heart attack. He had a whole life insurance policy that left their family underinsured. Five years later Art Williams' cousin Ted Harrison introduced to him the concept of term life insurance, a much cheaper and simpler alternative to whole life that was almost never sold and rarely heard of. Williams was taken aback by the idea of not knowing that there was a choice when buying life insurance and described the whole conversation as "disturbing,"cite book |last= Williams |first= Art |coauthors= Karen Kassel Hutto |authorlink= Arthur L. Williams, Jr. |title= Coach |month= June |year= 2006 |publisher= Art Williams Productions |location= Atlanta, Georgia |isbn= 0-9786266-0-5 ] recalling his father's death and referring to the fact that people had no idea of such a product. Believing that families were paying too much for whole life policies that left them poor in the wallet and deeply underinsured, Williams joined his cousin at ITT Financial Services in 1970. In June 1973, six months before ITT went out of business, he left and came on board with Waddell & Reed, another BTID company that saw early success.

Williams gained momentum at W&R and became regional vice-president (RVP) the same year, having a sales force that covered 6 states. Despite the numerous benefits of working at W&R in comparison to former ITT, it became clear to Williams that with a corporate structure where the executives, not the sales force, owned the company, financial decisions would always have priority over the clients and there would be limits on how much the company could grow.

On February 10, 1977 Art Williams and 85 associates founded their own company A.L. Williams & Associates on a simple philosophy: "Buy Term and Invest the Difference." [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/DA4B.html Williams biography] , accessed on July 8, 2006 ] He convinced many customers to switch from their conventional whole-life insurance to term policies. The company's rapid growth to the largest seller of life insurance in the U.S. was enhanced by his emphasis on "pushing up" his people. He was one of the first to have weekly video conferences on the company's private television broadcast system. This allowed him to personally speak to each of his 100,000 plus agents and to create a family feeling that inspired them to want to please him, by succeeding.

Becoming concerned about what would happen to his people if he were to become ill or die, Williams sold his company to New York-based Primerica Corporation for $90 million in 1989.

"Art" has made a large portion of his fortune from investments, particularly in Citigroup, of which he owns 21 million shares.Fact|date=September 2007

Billionaire

As of 2008, he ranks as #843 on the Forbes list of the "World's Billionaires" with an estimated wealth of $1.4 billion.

Books

Art has written these books:
* "All You Can Do is All You Can Do but All You Can Do is Enough!"
* "Coach"
* "Common Sense"
* "Pushing Up People"

His personal blog

He has a blog called [http://www.everybodywantsacoach.com/ Everybody Wants a Coach] .

ports involvement

He coached football at Kendrick High School in Columbus, Georgia before he left to join ITT. He lead his brand new team to a region championship and lost a tough game to national powerhouse of Valdosta.

Art Williams owned the franchise of the CFL team Birmingham Barracudas that played the 1995 season, in an attempt to expand the CFL into the United States. Williams lost $10 million in this business venture.Fact|date=September 2007

Williams also owned the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League in the 1998-99 season. In his one year of ownership, he went a long way towards moving the team out of financial trouble by paying team creditors past due amounts of money. He also tried to sign a few veteran players in their mid-30s to get the team on the winning track in a short period of time. In spite of this, the team was still largely unsuccessful and Williams himself lost $20 million.

"DO IT" speech

In Art Williams' famous speech [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5026310041540225283&hl=en DO IT] , he appeared before the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Washington, DC and delivered his own classic depiction of his business philosophy, with an introduction by Dr. Jerry Falwell, Chancellor, Liberty University.

References

ee also

*List of billionaires

External links

* [http://www.artwilliams.com/ Arthur Williams website]