Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded in 1851 and is also known as MassMutual.  The Company is a mutual life insurance company where any profits are paid as dividends to their policyholders instead of shareholders.  It cannot guarantee that dividends will be paid each year but since 1860 the Company has paid dividends every year to their participating policyholders.  MassMutual can provide insurance cover such as disability income insurance, whole life insurance, retirement plan services and long term care insurance. It also has a network of financial professionals who can help anyone plan their finances for the future. From being a small personal insurer it now has over $360 billion in assets making it a financial giant. The Company's headquarters are situated in Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and Roger W Crandall is the President.  MassMutual was first founded by a young insurance agent called George W Rice.  He was already employed by Connecticut Mutual Life in Hartford.  At the time other mutual companies had been started and Rice had the idea of starting a mutual insurance Company in neighbouring Massachusetts.  When MassMutual first opened its business the office was just a room with three chairs and a table.  The first policy it sold was to Harvey Danks on August 2 1851 who was also a MassMutual agent. Later the Company sold policies that insured railway and steamship workers and homeowners in New England as well as the gold-rush adventurers.  The Company bought its first typewriter in 1885 and had telephones installed for better communication between the agents and the office.

Over the years there have been many insurance companies, because of dishonest executives, that have been investigated by the Armstrong Committee of 1906.  However, MassMutual was not one of them and continued in its practice of selling life insurance policies with a lump sum of money when the insured person died.  After the Armstrong investigation in 1906 many people became disenchanted by the corruption of some insurance companies.  MassMutual continued growing and designed policies that would provide income for the disabled. By 1924 MassMutual had 400 employees and insurance assets of $1 billion.  When the stock market crashed in 1929 which caused the Great Depression MassMutual had to pay out millions of dollars due to policy terminations and death claims. It hit MassMutual very hard and led to the introduction of new products. By 1930 it had introduced a family-income policy and in 1938 a pension trust policy. It made $26 million in new policy loans and premium loans.  In 1983 the Company was divided into four divisions, group life and health, group pensions, individual products and group pensions and investments. Their net income and financial success continued and by 2000 their total assets grew to $213.1billion.  By the year ending 2007 it had reached $505 billion.  Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company is a reputable and trustworthy company that offers insurance protection as well as financial advice.