| Type | Reciprocal |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Headquarters | San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 9 financial centers |
| Key people | Lt. General John H. Moellering, USA (Ret.) (Chairman) Maj. General Josue Robles Jr., USA (Ret.) (CEO) |
| Products | Insurance, Banking, Investments, Retirement, Financial Planning |
| Revenue | USD 17.946 billion (2010)[1] |
| Net income | USD 2.637 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | USD 99.618 billion (June 30, 2011)[2] |
| Total equity | USD 19.307 billion (June 30, 2011)[2] |
| Employees | ~24,000 (June 30, 2011)[2] |
| Website | www.usaa.com |
United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is a Fortune 500[3] financial services company offering banking, investing, and insurance to people and families that serve, or served, in the United States military. In 2011, there were 8.4 million members.[2] The company reported a net worth of $19.3 billion in 2011.[4]
USAA was founded in 1922 by a group of U.S. Army officers to self-insure each other when they were unable to secure auto insurance due to the perception that they were a high-risk group.[5] USAA has since expanded to serve all members of the Armed Forces and all who served honorably in the US Armed Forces, as well as their immediate families, with property & casualty insurance, banking, life insurance, investment and financial planning products and services.
The company was one of the pioneers of direct marketing and most of its business is conducted over the Internet or telephone using employees instead of agents. Until the 1960s the bulk of its business was conducted via mail. In the late 1960s USAA began a transition from mail to phone based sales and service. A toll-free number was launched in 1978, and Internet sales and service were launched in 1999 via its website.
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The organization was originally called the United States Army Automobile Association. In 1924, the name was changed to United Services Automobile Association, when members of other military services became eligible for membership. The company opened offices in Frankfurt, Germany, and London, England early in its history.
USAA is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, occupying 286 acres (116 ha) (a former horse farm)[6] in a large single-occupancy office building.[7]
The organization started offering homeowner's and life insurance in the 1960s, and brokerage and banking services in the 1980s.
In 1996, eligibility was extended to enlisted personnel.[8]
USAA offers a range of personal property and casualty (P&C) insurance, including automobile insurance, homeowner insurance, renters insurance, valuable personal property insurance, and umbrella insurance. In addition to P&C insurance, USAA provides whole life insurance, term life insurance, and annuities. USAA's life insurance policies, while not completely unique in the industry, are different from most offerings since they do not include a war-exclusion clause[9] (also known as a "war clause").
Banking services are provided by the USAA Federal Savings Bank. The bank was established on December 30, 1983. According to the FDIC, as of June 2011, the bank held over $43.8 billion in deposits with more than 6.3 million accounts.[10]
The bank's main financial center in San Antonio is its only full-service banking location. It operates limited-service financial centers in other cities, usually near military bases, which provide advice and assistance in obtaining services and opening accounts online. These limited service locations cannot process deposits or withdrawals, but ATMs located on site do allow customers to make monetary transactions.[11][12]
Services can be accessed in person, by mail, by phone, or through the internet. USAA Federal Savings Bank provides members the ability to deposit checks into their accounts by using mobile applications on both the iPhone[13] and mobile devices with Google's Android operating system.[14] With USAA's Deposit@Home feature, checks can be deposited at home using a computer scanner,[15] and some locations of the UPS Store can accept non-cash deposits into USAA accounts.[16] USAA also offers ATM fee rebates, free standard checks for the life of the account, free online bill pay, and bank-by-mail services. USAA was one of the few major banks to begin offering American Express cards in 2006 in addition to their traditional offering of Mastercard.[17]
Major banking competitors include Bank of America-Military Bank, Pentagon Federal Credit Union,[18] and the Navy Federal Credit Union.
USAA provides a limited discount brokerage service and a family of no-load mutual funds. Mutual funds established by other companies can also be purchased and held in USAA investing accounts. USAA also offers limited free financial planning advice, as well as a more thorough flat-fee or hourly-rate financial planning service.
Through its Alliance Services Company (ASC), USAA runs a mail-order catalog service specializing in the sale of diamonds and jewelry. In addition, the ASC secures a variety of discounted services for members. These include travel-related services through rental car alliances with Avis Budget Group and Hertz Corporation, as well as discounts on cruise travel. Their retail alliances also include partnerships with FTD,[19] FedEx, and ADT Security Services.[20]
For its own investment purposes, USAA operates a real estate company[21] which has holdings including major office buildings, industrial buildings, hotels, and other properties throughout the country.
USAA's mission statement indicates its focus is to serve its niche market, which consists of members of the U.S. military and their immediate families. To that end, they have always marketed directly to members of the U.S. military. USAA membership is offered to officers and enlisted personnel, including those on active duty, those in the National Guard and Reserve, Officer candidates in commissioning programs (Academy, ROTC, OCS/OTS) and all those who have served in the aforementioned categories and who have retired or have been discharged honorably.[22][23] Children of USAA members are also eligible to purchase USAA's P&C insurance products, and former members of USAA are allowed to resume membership at any time (without an age limit).
Eligibility can be determined using its website;[24] however, the site does not contain a comprehensive statement of eligibility. USAA has, in the past, published a list[25] of other eligible persons including special agents of the FBI and Secret Service, agents of the various military investigative services (NCIS, OSI, CI and CID), U.S. Foreign Service Officers, and officers from a variety of other smaller agencies. Recently, USAA has been sharpening its focus on members of the military. So, people working for certain non-military agencies that were accommodated in the past may find that they are no longer eligible.[26]
Historically, only U.S. military officers (among certain other federally sworn officers) were eligible to join USAA, with descendants of USAA members able to purchase insurance from USAA-CIC. It did not matter if one was an active duty or retired officer; one could join at any time. In 1973, membership was opened to members of the National Guard and Reserves, and in 1996, eligibility was expanded to enlisted members of the armed services. As the number of persons who have served on active duty in an enlisted status in the U.S. Armed Forces is quite large, USAA chose to limit the establishment of eligibility to those who were currently on active duty or who had recently separated. The same time limit on establishment of eligibility was then applied to military officers. As USAA's capacity for taking on new members expanded, eligibility criteria relaxed. In 2008, USAA expanded membership eligibility to all military personnel and retirees, and all veterans who separated after 1996.[22] In November 2009, USAA expanded eligibility requirements to offer coverage to anyone who has ever served honorably in the US Military.[23]
Auto and property insurance and some banking services require that the customer meet membership eligibility criteria. USAA investment products[27] as well as deposit-only banking services[28] are available to non-members.[29]
Of the top ten automobile insurance competitors, USAA is the only provider that restricts service to members of the United States military and their immediate families.[30]
One of the characteristics that allows USAA to operate differently than almost every other Fortune 500 company is that it is not a corporation. The parent company, United Services Automobile Association, is an inter-insurance exchange, the establishment of which is provided for under the Texas Insurance Code.[31] This insurance exchange is made up of current and former military officers and NCOs who have taken out P&C policies with USAA; thus they simultaneously are insured by each other and, as a group, own USAA's assets. Theoretically, this implies that each member could be held completely responsible for all the losses of all the other members. However, the insurance code (Sec 942.142) stipulates that should an entity such as USAA accrue a substantial amount of assets, member liability is limited only to the premiums they have paid to USAA. In other words, if an enormous disaster were to result in claims that would wipe out all the assets of USAA, individual members could not legally be called upon to pay for any amount USAA is unable to pay out in claims.
Other insurance services are provided by a variety of wholly owned subsidiaries. Adult children of USAA members and U.S. military junior enlisted personnel make up a group known at USAA as "associate members" insured through a subsidiary called USAA-Casualty Insurance Company (USAA-CIC). USAA-CIC is not an insurance exchange but rather a Delaware Insurance Corporation. This is a subtle nuance but is important concerning the return of profits - described below. Non-standard-risk drivers are insured by subsidiaries like USAA's County Mutual Insurance Company or USAA-General Indemnity Company. USAA also insures members in Europe through its subsidiary, USAA Limited. It is uncommon for a U.S. based insurance company to provide international P&C coverage, but USAA does so because so many military families are stationed out-of-country.
Since there are no shareholders, profits are retained for financial strength or returned to the members. Returns are accomplished through an SSA (Subscriber's Savings Account). Each year a portion of USAA's profit is retained as "unassigned," the rest is allocated to each member's SSA using a formula based on the amount of premium the member paid that year as well as the member's SSA balance. The allocation of capital to a member's SSA occurs early in the calendar year. Late in the calendar year a portion of the member's SSA is distributed to the member via checks or electronic funds transfer. Members with more than 40 years of membership also receive a special yearly "senior bonus" distribution which amounts to 10% of the member's SSA balance. The entirety of the SSA belongs to the member, but is not completely distributed until approximately 6 months after the member no longer has a USAA P&C policy.[32] In 2010 the distribution amounted to 6% of the member's Subscriber's Account balance.
Associate members sometimes receive policy dividends instead of distributions of profits, since they are not members of the insurance exchange.
The stated mission of USAA is to facilitate the financial security of its members, associates and their families through provision of a range of financial products and services. In so doing, USAA seeks to be the provider of choice for the military community.[33]
Besides its headquarters in San Antonio, it has a second major office in Phoenix, AZ, as well as other smaller operations in Colorado Springs, CO; Norfolk, VA; Tampa, FL; Highland Falls, NY; London, England and Frankfurt, Germany.[34]
USAA experienced much of its growth under its former CEO, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert F. McDermott. The USAA building was constructed under his tenure and McDermott was also the driving force behind USAA's shift from service-by-mail to service-by-phone.[35] He was succeeded as CEO by retired Air Force General Robert Herres.[36] It was under the leadership of Herres that USAA expanded its services to enlisted members of the military and ventured into Internet based financial services.[37] Following General Herres as CEO was Robert G. Davis, a former Army officer[38] who came to USAA with experience working at a variety of financial services companies. Davis is said to have changed the culture at USAA; during his time at USAA, membership, assets and net worth grew significantly; his leadership, however, was not without controversy. Davis oversaw USAA's first layoffs and by some reports had a confrontational style of leadership. Davis had indicated to USAA employees that he intended to continue to lead USAA until 2010, however, he retired in December 2007.[39] The nature of his retirement seems to have been precipitous, as current USAA CEO Josue Robles has stated that upon assuming the role of CEO, "I thought I was just going to be a temporary CEO and (the board) said, 'Guess what? The permanent CEO is you.'"[40]
Since it is not a publicly traded corporation, USAA is not bound by the same corporate governance rules as publicly traded companies. Even so, USAA is subject to insurance regulation and examination by all 50 states as well as federal entities like the SEC, FTC, and FDIC. In addition, its records are audited by Ernst & Young as well as the major financial rating agencies, who rate both United Services Automobile Association and many of its subsidiaries. Relevant ratings include:
USAA has consistently received the highest customer service ratings available to all financial services companies, including those not in its niche. For its highly rated customer service, in 2002 JD Power awarded USAA with its Chairman's Award,[43] which at that time had been awarded to ten companies, none of them in the financial services arena. Since then, USAA has remained at the top of the JD Power ratings for auto insurance[44][45][46] home insurance,[47] mortgages,[48] and home equity loans.[49]
In its March 5, 2007 issue, BusinessWeek[50] ranked USAA first in its list[51] of "Customer Service Champs", a list of 25 national businesses that included the likes of Four Seasons Hotels, Lexus and Starbucks. USAA repeated as first on BusinessWeek's list in its March 3, 2008 issue.[52]
A 2007 Forrester Research report referenced in the San Antonio Express-News on June 27, 2007,[53] identified USAA as the leader in customer advocacy based on a customer survey. Eighty-eight percent of the USAA customers surveyed said "My financial provider does what's best for me, not just its own bottom line." No other company evaluated scored higher than 78%. USAA retained the top spot on Forrester Research's study in 2008[54] and 2009.[55]
In its May 2009 issue, Consumer Reports named USAA's brokerage division as the top rated discount brokerage service in the United States.[56]
In a survey of 145 companies conducted by Zogby International, USAA ranked #1 in customer service out of 145 American companies, and was subsequently awarded first place in the 2009 MSN Money Customer Service Hall of Fame.[57]
USAA employs more than 22,600 personnel at its offices throughout the country.[1] In 2010, USAA was ranked 45th on Fortune Magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."[58][59] In 2011, USAA moved up 28 spots to 17th on Fortune's list.[60] USAA has also been recognized for many years as one of the 50 best corporations for career advancement for Latinas in the US.[61][62] It has been recognized as a "Military Spouse-Friendly Employer"[63] and has also been recognized by GI Jobs as one of America's best employers for veterans and reservists.[64]
USAA was ranked 17th on the Computerworld 100 Best Places to Work for IT Professionals in 2006,[65] 39th in 2007,[66] 20th in 2008,[67] 9th in 2009,[68] and 1st in 2010[69] and 2011.[70]In the 2007 Computerworld rating, only one company with more IT employees was ranked higher than USAA and only one Texas company with 100 IT employees was rated higher. Like many Fortune 500 companies, USAA utilizes third party IT contractors.