Here is some interesting trivia about 5 Top Insurance Companies
State Farm
George J. Mecherle, an Illinois farmer turned insurance agent, founded State Farm as an auto insurance company solely for farmers, hence its name. Mecherle felt insurers were "rooking" farmers by charging them rates that reflected the risks of city driving, and he vowed that State Farm would be "an honest insurance company."
Allstate
In the autumn of 1930, a year into the Great Depression, a friend and fellow commuter on a Chicago-bound train suggested to Sears, Roebuck & Co. President Gen. Robert E. Wood that Sears expand its services by selling auto insurance by mail. The company chose to name its new venture after a line of automobile tires sold in the Sears catalog.
Geico
Stuck in middle management with military insurer USAA because he lacked a service background, 50-ish Leo Goodwin borrowed a page from USAA's playbook and geared his own company, the Government Employees Insurance Company, or Geico, toward a similar targeted market: federal employees. Geico probably thought government workers were more responsible and therefore had fewer accidents, says Kenneth Abraham, a University of Virginia insurance law professor. "While that was probably fictitious, that may have been their world view."
Progressive
In 1936, the Ohio attorney general asked ex-law school classmates Joe Lewis and Jack Green to investigate a group that was selling shady auto service contracts. Seeing firsthand the need for honest auto insurance companies, Lewis and Green founded their own and named it Progressive Mutual Insurance Co.
Farmers
Jack Tyler, the son of a South Dakota farmer turned insurance salesman, and Thomas Leavey, son of a California dairy farmer, went farm-to-farm in Southern California to offer affordable auto insurance for low-risk country drivers. They opened their one-room Farmers Automobile Inter-Insurance Exchange in downtown Los Angeles in 1928.
State Farm
George J. Mecherle, an Illinois farmer turned insurance agent, founded State Farm as an auto insurance company solely for farmers, hence its name. Mecherle felt insurers were "rooking" farmers by charging them rates that reflected the risks of city driving, and he vowed that State Farm would be "an honest insurance company."
Allstate
In the autumn of 1930, a year into the Great Depression, a friend and fellow commuter on a Chicago-bound train suggested to Sears, Roebuck & Co. President Gen. Robert E. Wood that Sears expand its services by selling auto insurance by mail. The company chose to name its new venture after a line of automobile tires sold in the Sears catalog.
Geico
Stuck in middle management with military insurer USAA because he lacked a service background, 50-ish Leo Goodwin borrowed a page from USAA's playbook and geared his own company, the Government Employees Insurance Company, or Geico, toward a similar targeted market: federal employees. Geico probably thought government workers were more responsible and therefore had fewer accidents, says Kenneth Abraham, a University of Virginia insurance law professor. "While that was probably fictitious, that may have been their world view."
Progressive
In 1936, the Ohio attorney general asked ex-law school classmates Joe Lewis and Jack Green to investigate a group that was selling shady auto service contracts. Seeing firsthand the need for honest auto insurance companies, Lewis and Green founded their own and named it Progressive Mutual Insurance Co.
Farmers
Jack Tyler, the son of a South Dakota farmer turned insurance salesman, and Thomas Leavey, son of a California dairy farmer, went farm-to-farm in Southern California to offer affordable auto insurance for low-risk country drivers. They opened their one-room Farmers Automobile Inter-Insurance Exchange in downtown Los Angeles in 1928.
