Genworth Financial

Genworth Financial, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: GNW S&P 400 Component
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	May 2004
Headquarters	Henrico County, Virginia, United States
Key people	Thomas J. McInerney, President and Chief Executive Officer
Products	Life and long term care insurance, mortgage insurance, annuities
Revenue	US$ 8.548 billion (2015)
Total assets	US$ 106.4 billion (2016)[1]
Number of employees	~3,300 (2016)
Website	www.genworth.com

Genworth Financial is a Fortune 500 insurance company. The firm was founded as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871.^[2] In 1986, Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance, which became Aon plc in 1987. In 1996, Life of Virginia was sold to GE Capital.^[3] In May 2004, Genworth Financial was formed out of various insurance businesses of General Electric in the largest IPO of that year.^[4]

The Genworth Financial family of companies has three segments: Retirement & Protection, US Mortgage Insurance, and International. Products and services include life and long-term care insurance, wealth management, mortgage insurance, and annuities. Its legal structure is set up as six separate companies.

On April 1, 2013, Genworth announced the completion of a legal entity reorganization, with the result being the creation of a new ultimate holding company. This restructuring separated the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries from the overall firm.^[5]

Company history

A.G. McIlwaine was the company’s first president.^[6] Begun by two dozen Petersburg investors, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia offered its first policies to local customers before expanding to Richmond, Virginia. Under general agent F.W. Chamberlayne, the Richmond Department attracted a large number of new clients. Within the first decade, the client base expanded beyond the South.

As the Life Insurance Company of Virginia grew, the headquarters were moved to Richmond, Virginia.^[7] By the turn of the twentieth century, the company offered products through different divisions,. The “Ordinary Division” of the company offered whole life annuity options and related products, the “Intermediate Division” offered term life products, endowment policies, and limited payment policies, and an industrial division offered inexpensive products.

Colloquially known as “Life of Virginia”, the company expanded its portfolio in the 20th century. Beginning with its first annuities business written in 1928, the company grew to include different mortgage insurance, lifestyle protection, and long-term care products and options.^[8]

Over the past few decades, the company has undergone several major acquisitions, beginning in 1986 when Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance for $557 million, which became AON Corporation the following year.^[9] In 1995, almost a decade after the acquisition, GE Capital, the financial services unit of General Electric, announced its plan to buy most of AON Corporation’s life insurance business, including Life of Virginia.^[10]

Under GE Capital, Life of Virginia became a part of GE Financial Assurance Holdings, Inc., before becoming GE Capital Assurance Company. The company was incorporated as Genworth Financial, Inc. on October 23, 2003,^[11] formed out of several GE Capital insurance companies. On May 25, 2004, Genworth became a publicly traded company in the largest initial public offering (IPO) of 2004.^[12]

GE sold its remaining stake in the company in 2006 for an estimated $2.8 billion.^[13] In 2007, another GE Capital insurance company, First Colony Life Insurance Company, merged with Genworth Life and Annuity Assurance Company, one of the entities within Genworth Financial, Inc. As of December 31, 2011, Genworth Financial, Inc. had more than 15 million customers in more than 25 countries. "Profile: Genworth Financial Inc (GNW)". Reuters. Retrieved 27 October 2014. 

Products and services

Genworth Financial offers a range of products and services, including long-term care insurance and mortgage insurance. In 2016, the company suspended sales of annuities and life insurance, putting the existing books of business in to runoff. In 2012, Genworth’s U.S. companies paid over $3.2 billion in benefits to life insurance, long-term care insurance, and annuity policyholders and beneficiaries.^[14]

The company provides individual long-term care insurance, group long-term care insurance for employers offering benefits to employees, linked benefits that incorporate both long-term care and life insurance, and caregiver support services.^[15]

Prior to 2016, the company offered several annuities: fixed immediate annuities, traditional fixed deferred annuities, and fixed index annuities.^[16]

Life insurance was the company’s first product. As of December 2013, Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company and Genworth Life Insurance Company have over $728 billion in force.^[17] Prior to the suspension of sales in 2016, the firm offered term life insurance, whole life insurance, universal life insurance, and index universal life insurance.^[18]

Mortgage insurance

Genworth’s offers mortgage insurance, with benefits including homebuyer privileges, which provides rebates to items purchased for the home, and the homeowner assistance program, in which Genworth professionals work with homeowners and lenders to structure a feasible loan repayment program.^[19]

Awards

Genworth Financial won “Best of Show” in 2007 at the Insurance & Financial Communicators Association (I.F.C.A) for outstanding interactive advertisement for their 100+ stories microsite. The microsite, which used a variety of multimedia to communicate the experiences of Americans who are 100 years of age or older, also won other accolades in 2007, including “Best of Category”, two gold and one silver awards in the Horizon Interactive Awards, and a gold award in the Financial Communications Society (FCS) portfolio awards.^[20]

For three consecutive years (2012-2014), Genworth Financial received the DALBAR Life Insurance Service Award, making it the only life insurance firm to emerge as a leader in customer service. DALBAR identified characteristics that differentiated Genworth Financial from the rest of the life insurance industry, including their high degree of professionalism in dealing with policyholders, and their high attention to detail when answering clients’ questions. Genworth also won DALBAR’s annual Annuity Service Award, making them one of six companies that had “emerged as the titans of customer service in 2014".^[21][22][23]

References

External links

• Genworth Home Page

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