State Farm Insurance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| State Farm Insurance Companies | |
 |
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| Type | Mutual |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1922 |
| Headquarters | Bloomington, Illinois |
| Key people | Edward B. Rust Jr., CEO & Chairman |
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Products | Insurance, Banking, & Investing |
| Revenue | $59,223.9 billion USD (2006) [1] |
| Employees | 68,000 |
| Slogan | Like A Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There |
| Website | www.statefarm.com |
State Farm Insurance Companies are a group of large US insurance and financial services companies started in 1922 by former farmer George J. Mecherle (pronounced Ma-herl). The corporate headquarters is in Bloomington, Illinois.
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[edit] History
State Farm was founded as a mutual automobile insurance company owned by its policyholders. Despite the company's name, State Farm did not initially begin as a crop insurance company. Specifically, State Farm specialized in auto insurance for farmers. Founder George J. Mecherle believed that since farmers drove less and had fewer losses than city drivers, they should pay less for insurance. His idea was popular with farmers and made his new company successful.
Since its inception, State Farm has expanded its services into other popular types of insurance, such as homeowners and life insurance, in addition to banking and financial services.
State Farm has grown to include 68,000 employees and 17,000 agents servicing 74 million policies in the United States and Canada, and serving more than 1.8 million bank accounts.
Edward B. Rust, Jr. is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Bloomington, Ill. He is also president and chief executive officer of State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, State Farm Life Insurance Company and other principal State Farm affiliates.
[edit] CEOs
| CEO | Years Served |
|---|---|
| George J. Mecherle | 1922 - 1937 |
| Raymond Mecherle | 1937 - 1954 |
| Adlai Rust | 1954 - 1970 |
| Edward B. Rust, Sr. | 1970 - 1985 |
| Edward B. Rust, Jr. | 1985 - Present |
[edit] Financial services
Recently, State Farm has expanded into the financial services arena, such as banking and mutual funds. These are separate from its insurance products. This has expanded its competition beyond the traditional P&C insurance companies like Geico, Progressive, Farmers Insurance, and USAA to include competition with leading banks and investment companies like Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, and eTrade.
[edit] Trivia
- State Farm is the nation's largest automobile insurance provider, covering one in every 5 vehicles in America. [2]
- The well-known jingle ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there") is just the tag ending on a full-length song. The song was written by legendary American songwriter Barry Manilow in 1971.
