Prudential Trust Company history

In 1881, when Blanchard died, the directors finally elected John Dryden president by one vote.

In 1896, the company's advertising department created Prudential's long-standing logo and slogan: the Rock of Gibraltar accompanied by the words, "The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar." Both were chosen to express the solidity of the products the company offered.

The company's image was further bolstered by the outcome of a New York state legislative committee investigation under Senator William W. Armstrong in 1905.

Prudential expanded to neighboring states, and, in 1909, opened its first international branch in Toronto, Canada.

When Dryden died in 1911, his son, Forrest Dryden, followed him as president.

Then, as a result of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, Prudential paid over $20 million for flu-related deaths.

By the time he resigned in 1921, company totals exceeded $5.6 billion, an increase of $3.6 billion in ten years.

The group sales department was the brainchild of Edmund Whittaker, an actuary who had joined the company in 1928, and who conceived of actuaries as the "engineers of insurance."

In 1948, the first regional sales office in Los Angeles boosted revenue in that region by 20 percent.

His successor as CEO and chairman of the board, 54-year-old Robert C. Winters, had joined Prudential in 1953.

In 1956, Shanks created a commercial and industrial loan department to seek out small business loans.

The strategy was successful; by 1962, the life insurance industry averaged a return of 4.4 percent on all invested assets.

In 1964, Beal led Prudential in selling its first group variable annuity policy.

In 1967, Prudential surpassed the Metropolitan as the world's largest insurance company; total Met assets amounted to $23.51 billion while Prudential announced $23.6 billion.

In 1974 Prudential purchased CNA Nuclear Leasing, renaming it Prudential Lease.

The company’s private foundation has been helping to close the financial divide through strategic grant-making since 1978.

1981 Bache investment and brokerage house is purchased; George L. Ball is named chairman and CEO of Pru Bache.

When the 1986 tax reform act eliminated the rationale for the many tax shelters, customers quickly abandoned them.

In 1989, a difficult year for Prudential, Bache lost $48 million.

In 1993 profits reached nearly $800 million.

In 1994 insurance operations lost $907 million as a result of the Northridge, California, earthquake.

The settlement, approved by a New Jersey district court judge in 1997, led to an eventual payment in excess of $2 billion.

In 1998, Ryan went before New Jersey's insurance commissioner to lobby for passage of a law that would allow a mutual insurance company to sell shares to the public.

With more than 50 000 employees in more than 20 countries, Prudential Financial is considered one of the top 2000 largest public companies in the world, according to Forbes.

In 2002, it acquired a 50 percent stake in Oppenheim Funds Trust GmbH and Oppenheim Investment Management International.

The company stood as the third-largest provider of adviser-sold variable annuity products in the United States upon completion of the purchase. It also pledged to cut nearly $600 million in expenses and achieve 12 percent return on equity (ROE)--a measure used to analyze operating performance--by 2005.

The company's assets in June 2006 were $568 billion.

PALAC is not licensed to do business in New York, effective December 31, 2015.

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