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Allstate history
Allstate company history timeline
Allstate launched on April 17, 1931, as the Great Depression intensified and Americans struggled with financial insecurity.
Allstate Insurance Company, named after Sears’ tire brand, went into business on April 17, 1931, offering auto insurance by direct mail and through the Sears catalog.
Although the new company posted underwriting losses for the first two years, in 1933 active policies reached 22,000, and the company posted its first profit of $93,000.
In 1933, at the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago, Allstate's Richard E. Roskam sold insurance at a booth in the Sears pavilion.
In 1934, Allstate opened its first permanent sales office in a Chicago Sears store.
By 1936, the company's premium volume had reached $1.8 million.
In 1941 only one quarter of all drivers owned auto insurance, but then the state of New York passed a law requiring auto insurance, and other states soon followed suit.
Revenue from premiums more than tripled by 1941, reaching $6.8 million from over 189,000 policies in force.
In 1941, when only about a quarter of United States drivers had auto liability insurance, a law was passed in New York firmly establishing the financial responsibility of drivers for damage or injuries resulting from auto mishaps.
In 1943, James Barker was named chairman of Allstate's board.
Growth was facilitated by a change in the company's structure that was implemented in 1947.
In 1949 the Allstate Headquarters Building was completed at 3245 W. Arthington Street in Chicago as a part of the Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex.
The widely recognized slogan “You're in good hands with Allstate” first was used in 1950.
Allstate conducts its community service activities through the Allstate Foundation, an independent corporation created in 1952 funded by Allstate Insurance.
Personal liability insurance was introduced in 1952.
Allstate became an international company in 1953 when its first Canadian office opened.
Allstate began selling insurance to Canadians in 1953.
In 1954, Allstate began offering residential fire insurance.
Also, in 1957 Allstate formed the subsidiary Allstate Life Insurance Company, which grew at an astronomical rate, bringing in $1 billion in life insurance revenues after just six years in business.
Commercial fire, personal theft, and homeowners insurance were all added in 1957.
In 1960 Allstate launched Allstate Enterprises, Inc., as the umbrella for a number of non-insurance based activities including a motor club, and finance businesses such as vehicle financing, mortgage banking, and mutual fund management.
A new entity, Allstate Enterprises, Inc., was created in 1960 as an umbrella for a whole batch of non-insurance businesses to come.
In 1963, the Allstate Life Insurance subsidiary passed the $1 billion mark in insurance in force, after only six years of operation.
Two new subsidiaries formed in 1964 to manage Allstate's Canadian interests: Allstate Insurance Company of Canada and Allstate Life Insurance Company of Canada.
Judson Branch Research Center in Menlo Park, California, 1966
In 1966 the Judson B. Branch Research Center (later renamed the Allstate Research and Planning Center) opened in California, and the following year, company headquarters moved into spacious new offices in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Illinois.
In 1967, the company's home office was moved from Skokie to Northbrook, Illinois.
By 1970, Allstate employed some 6,500 insurance agents to sell Allstate products.
In 1972 Allstate entered the mortgage banking business by acquiring National First Corporation.
For 1973, Allstate generated earnings of $203 million, nearly 30 percent of parent company Sears's total.
In 1975, the company entered the Japanese market through a joint venture (Seibu Allstate Life Insurance Company, Ltd.) and purchased Lippmann & Moens, a group of Dutch insurance operations.
Allstate also formed Tech-Cor,Inc., an auto-body research and reclamation business, in 1976.
"Allstate's activities in the area of corporate social responsibility and change must be intensified," Chairman of the Board Arch Boe said in 1977.
In 1978 the company established two wholly owned subsidiaries: Northbrook Property and Casualty Insurance Company and Allstate Reinsurance Company, Ltd., a London-based subsidiary of Allstate's international operations.
Limited, a London Subsidiary of Allstate International, was incorporated in 1978.
For 1980, the company reported $450 million in net income on revenue of $6.2 billion, as well as assets of $10.5 billion and 40,000 employees.
Allstate was the sixth largest insurance group in the United States by 1980.
In 1981 Allstate purchased Surety Life Insurance Company and Lincoln Benefit Life Company from the Dean Witter Reynolds group.
Sears Financial Network, 1982
Donald F. Craib, Jr., was named chairman of the board at Allstate in 1982.
By the end of 1983, Allstate's claim staff consisted of 12,500 employees, the largest force in the industry.
In 1984, Neighborhood Office Agent program was introduced to make agents more accessible to customers.
In 1985, Allstate began to move agents out of Sears stores and locate agents in neighborhood offices.
For 1986, the company reported income of over $750 million on revenue of $12.64 billion.
In 1987 net income was $946 million.
Allstate also launched the Allstate Advantage Program, a three-tiered rating system for auto insurance, in 1987.
A number of business insurance developments took place at Allstate in 1987.
A new board chairman and chief executive officer, Wayne E. Hedien, was named in 1989.
A new, aggressive advertising campaign launched using the motto, "Leave It to the Good Hands People." The company's rapid growth finally caught up to earnings, and in 1990 the company posted a decreased net income, barely surpassing $700 million.
Allstate also divested itself of several smaller subsidiaries and finished selling off its real estate holdings, a move which had been started in 1991.
On November 9, 1993, the Florida Legislature approved a catastrophe fund bill designed to protect insurance consumers and the insurance industry from the financial devastation caused by severe hurricanes.
New York Stock Exchange initial public offering, 1993
In 1993, Allstate went public when Sears sold 19.8% of the company.
A dip in profits followed in 1994, however, in the wake of another natural disaster which involved massive claims against Allstate.
Allstate became completely independent in June 1995, when Sears spun off the remaining 80% stake in the company, distributing 350.5 million shares of Allstate stock to its stockholders.
Despite damage done by Hurricane Opal in 1995, Allstate posted a record $1.9 billion in income on $22.8 billion in revenues.
In 1996, their website www.allstate.com was launched.
Allstate's chief executive officer Edward Liddy set the company on a clear course for the future in 1998, announcing that Allstate was working to become a major player in the financial services industry.
In late 1998 the company founded a bank, Allstate Federal, which it began to use to handle many of the company's own financial transactions.
In January 1999, a new CEO was installed, Edward M. Liddy.
Allstate responded by introducing Internet and telemarketing sales in 1999, which quickly sparked the ire of agents bypassed in the new process.
In 1999, Allstate unveiled a new business model that created a single contract for exclusive, independent agents selling Allstate insurance.
In 1999, Allstate purchased the personal lines division of CNA Financial and subsequently renamed it to Encompass Insurance Company which is written by independent insurance agents, as opposed to the direct writing that constitutes the core part of its business.
In 2000 Liddy fired all 6,200 agents as employees of the company and offered them positions as independent agent contracts.
Gogoi, Pallavi. "Is Allstate in Good Hands?" Business Week, 21 May 2001.
Also Allstate's auto insurance business has suffered from increased losses, caused in part by lower gas prices and the trend toward travel by auto rather than air after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Allstate Bank began operating in October 2001 and offered products and services such as savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and insured money-market accounts.
Allstate's net income for 2001 was $1.2 billion on revenues of $28.9 billion.
Although Allstate reacted quickly to its financially disappointing performance in 2001 by altering policies, increasing premiums, and streamlining operations, most analysts believe that the repercussions from the poor year have not come to an end.
Four of every five new dollars earned by the financial service business during 2001 were generated by independent agents.
Allstate's entrance, albeit late, into Internet-based services and toll-free customer service was well received; in 2001 allstate.com recorded approximately 1 million hits every month and the toll-free help line answered 170,000 calls per week.
The company's poor underlying trends, along with lower investment income available for 2002, put Allstate at risk for ongoing financial woes in the immediate future.
By 2002 Allstate was pushing its agents to obtain securities licenses and begin selling financial services, especially targeting its existing base of insurance customers.
In 2010, actor Dean Winters became a part of Allstate's campaign "Mayhem" “personifying the pitfalls, like collisions and storm damage, that can befall drivers”.
In May 2011, Allstate announced that it was purchasing Esurance and rate-comparison site Answer Financial for approximately $1 billion.
In 2012 Allstate Solutions Private Limited (also called Allstate India) was inaugurated in Bangalore which is a technology and operations centre to provides software development and business process outsourcing services to its US parent.
In 2014, Allstate introduces Drivewise Mobile, the industry's first mobile telematics app.
In January 2017, Allstate acquired SquareTrade, a consumer electronics and appliance protection plan provider.
In 2019, Allstate donated $75,000 to the Red Cross and again partnered with the organization to distribute over 2,900 disaster kits in California.
In July 2020, Allstate announced to be acquiring National General Insurance for $4 billion.
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Allstate competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State Farm | 1922 | $87.6B | 57,672 | 99 |
| GEICO | 1936 | $25.5B | 40,000 | 1,391 |
| Farmers Insurance | 1928 | - | 19,000 | 674 |
| American Family Insurance | 1927 | $12.2B | 11,307 | 224 |
| Esurance | 1998 | $1.0B | 3,000 | - |
| USAA | 1922 | $35.6B | 32,896 | 560 |
| Progressive | 1937 | $35.0M | 43,001 | 172 |
| Liberty Mutual Insurance | 1912 | $39.4B | 45,000 | 1,757 |
| MetLife | 1868 | $531.0M | 49,000 | 496 |
| Foremost Insurance | 1952 | $250.0M | 12,740 | - |
Allstate history FAQs
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Allstate may also be known as or be related to ALLSTATE CORP, Allstate, Allstate Insurance Company and The Allstate Corporation.