| Type | Public (NYSE: AIZ) S&P 500 Component |
|---|---|
| Industry | Insurance |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Key people |
Robert B. Pollock (President and CEO) |
| Revenue | US$ 8.5 billion (FY 2010)[1] |
| Net income | US$ 279.2 million (FY 2010)[1] |
| Total assets | US$26.4B (FY 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | US$4.78B (FY 2010)[1] |
| Employees | approximately 14,000 (2010) |
| Website | assurant.com |
Assurant, Inc. is a holding company with businesses that provide a diverse set of specialty, niche-market insurance products in the property, casualty, life and health insurance sectors. The company’s four operating segments are Assurant Employee Benefits, Assurant Health, Assurant Solutions and Assurant Specialty Property.
The company, formerly known as Fortis, Inc., was spun off from Dutch and Belgian financial-services company Fortis Insurance N.V. in 2004. The company’s initial public offering on Feb. 5, 2004 at $1.76 billion was the fourth largest that year. In connection with the public offering, the company changed its name to Assurant, Inc. [2][3]
Headquartered in New York City, Assurant is 285 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. [4] It also is included in the Ward’s 50, which recognizes the top property-casualty insurance companies domiciled in the US. [5]
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Assurant operates four main businesses:
In March 2010, Assurant Solutions and IBM unveiled a Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform (RAMP) to improve call center performance. [9] [10] RAMP is an application that works by analyzing historical data about the individual caller and the skill set of customer service representatives to optimize the routing of the call. As calls come in they are assigned to a customer service representative based on their expertise and past performance, improving customer response and retention rates.
Each of the Assurant businesses participate in local programs while regularly supporting nationally recognized charities such as United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Share Our Strength and the American Red Cross. The Assurant Foundation is a charitable trust started in 1982 to provide charitable grants to improve the quality of life in communities served.[11]
Assurant Health has been repeatedly found to cancel health policies for some customers that have serious medical conditions, and 12 states have criticized the firm for denying claims, with most of the states levying fines against Assurant.[12] [13][14]
In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s verdict and ordered Assurant Health (then known as "Fortis") to pay $10 million to policyholder Jerome Mitchell, who had contracted HIV subsequent to getting an insurance policy through Assurant Health. In court proceedings, it was revealed that the company's policy was to target every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke ("rescind") their policy. As in Mitchell’s case, their insurance policies often were canceled on incorrect information, flimsy evidence, or for no reason at all.[15]
In February 2010, a Boulder, Colorado jury found that Assurant Health had breached its contract with Jennifer Latham, a 40-year-old mother of four who was severely injured in a hit-and-run accident, and awarded Latham $183,551 for medical bills and approximately 37.1 million dollars in punitive damages. This was described as "one of the largest bad-faith judgments in Colorado history".[16]
Assurant disclosed in a conference call with investors on Feb.4, 2010 that the company would, “...pursue post-trial motions as well as an appeal.” Subsequently, during its second quarter 2010 conference call on July 29, 2010 the company indicated that, “The current quarter includes a $17.4 million after-tax benefit from the settlement of a previously disclosed Colorado lawsuit for less than the original judgment."
In March 2010, the US Supreme Court rejected Assurant Health’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that awarded $10 million to a South Carolina customer whose policy was cancelled by the company when he tested positive for HIV.[17]