Overview of NAMIC

In 1752, a generation before he would become a Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin helped establish the first successful mutual insurance company in America. For more than 250 years, mutual insurance companies have been – and still are – about people coming together to protect themselves in a common need. Because there are no stockholders in a mutual insurance company, the interests of the policyholders are served first.

The median age of a mutual insurance company in the United States is 120 years. Following the Civil War, there was a boom of farm mutual companies, and many states began forming associations to bring together their respective states’ companies on common ground.

The idea for a national organization came in 1895 as members of the Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa’s board of directors sat around a table after a meeting of their state association. It was suggested that Walter A. Rutledge, who had started Farmers Mutual Hail several years earlier, should invite mutual insurance executives from other states to consider forming a national association. That meeting, held the following year in Chicago, is considered the first organizational meeting of what was initially called the National Association of Co-Operative Mutual Insurance Companies.

For more than 120 years NAMIC has been serving in the best interests of mutual insurance companies – large and small – across the United States as well as in Canada. NAMIC membership includes nearly 1,500 member companies. The association supports regional and local mutual insurance companies on main streets across America along with many of the country’s largest national insurers. NAMIC member companies write $391 billion in annual premiums and together account for 68 percent of homeowners, 56 percent of automobile, and 31 percent of the business insurance markets.

Membership in NAMIC is not restricted to mutual insurance companies alone. Stock insurance companies, reinsurance companies and industry vendor companies may also apply to become associate members. More than 450,000 people are employed by NAMIC member companies.

By providing positive contributions to our society through a financially sound, competitive, and ethical insurance industry, NAMIC member companies better serve their policyholders and the communities where they do business. We strengthen and support our members and the mutual property/casualty insurance industry by leadership in advocacy, public policy, public affairs, and member services.

Through our advocacy programs we promote public policy solutions that benefit policyholders and the NAMIC member companies that exist to serve them. Our educational programs enable members to become better leaders in their companies and the industry.

NAMIC was incorporated in Indiana in 1920. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, and has an office in Washington, D.C. We are equally proud of our long and storied history (Benjamin Franklin’s company is still in business, and it continues to be a NAMIC member).