Equitable Holdings history

In 1865, the last year of the war, the firm had $27.6 million worth of coverage in force.

Equitable opened its headquarters at the Equitable Life Building in 1870 in the Financial District of Manhattan, with entrances facing Broadway, Pine Street, and Cedar Street.

William Alexander died in 1874 and was succeeded by Henry Baldwin Hyde.

Business continued to skyrocket during Hyde's active stewardship, and in 1886 Equitable surpassed Mutual to become the largest life insurance company in the world.

He found a buyer in financier Thomas Ryan, who persuaded the directors to elect his associate Paul Morton, who had been secretary of the navy under Theodore Roosevelt, as chairman. It started in January 1905, when James Hyde threw a lavish coming-out party for his niece.

The influenza epidemic of 1918, however, cost the firm about $8 million in death claims.

The process was a drawn-out one, but by 1925 the firm was selling only a few policies outside the United States.

In 1942 the firm took its first plunge into large-scale housing development, building a series of apartment complexes in Brooklyn.

In 1943, during World War II, Equitable began underwriting policies for the War Agencies Employees Protective Association to provide group life insurance to United States Government employees working in or around war zones.

Oates retired in 1969 and was succeeded by J. Henry Smith, who had first given thought to entering the insurance business during his senior year in college, after chatting with an Equitable salesman who had sold a policy to his father.

In 1973 it acquired Informatics, a California-based computer systems company.

A minor controversy swirled around the firm in 1975 when the Department of Justice filed a conflict-of-interest suit against Eklund over his directorship of Chase Manhattan Bank, out of concern that he might be tempted to give Chase Manhattan preferential treatment in investing Equitable premiums.

In 1981 it sold Equitable General Insurance to GEICO Corporation.

In 1982 it bought Equitable Life Mortgage Realty Trust, the real estate investment trust (REIT) that it managed.

In 1984 it bought 19 shopping centers from Iowa-based General Growth Properties.

In 1987 the firm sold Equitable Life Leasing to mortgage banker Lomas & Nettleton.

Equitable would be the first major life insurance company to explore the use of New York State's new demutualization law, which took effect in 1988, as a means of increasing its capital base.

On July 18, 1991, AXA Group of France bought a $1 billion stake in Equitable Life Assurance Society, for a 49% stake in the business.

In 1992 they completed the largest initial public offering to date in New York with AXA becoming their largest shareholder.

Another milestone which occurred in 1995 was that the chairmen and CEO of Equitable Insurance and AXA was awarded the person of the year award from the French American Chamber of Commerce.

In 2000 AXA purchased Outstanding Minority Interests which was the parent company of AXA Equitable Life Insurance.

In 2006 the Council on Foundations provided AXA Insurance with the recognition of the best practices model for their diversity programs.