Arthur L. Williams, Jr.
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| Arthur L. Williams, Jr. | |
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| Born | April 23, 1942 .svg/22px-Flag_of_Georgia_(U.S._state).svg.png){kind=small} Cairo, Georgia, USA |
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| Occupation | Retired |
| Title | Founder, CEO, & Chairman of A.L. Williams Corporation |
| Net worth | ▼US$1.4 billion (2008)[1] |
| Spouse | Angela Williams |
| Children | 2 |
| Website Art Williams |
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Arthur L. Williams, Jr. (Art Williams) is a billionaire insurance executive living in Palm Beach, Florida. He is the founder of A.L. Williams & Associates, known as Primerica Financial Services since 1991.
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[edit] Early life and Education
Art Williams was born on April 23, 1942 in Cairo, Georgia[2]. He obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University in Starkville and his Master's Degree in Science from Auburn University. From his early days in high school Art always aspired to be a professional football coach.
[edit] Life Insurance Industry
In 1965 Art Williams' father suddenly died of a heart attack. He had a whole life insurance policy that left their family underinsured. Five years later Art Williams' cousin Ted Harrison introduced to him the concept of term life insurance, a much cheaper and simpler alternative to whole life that was almost never sold and rarely heard of. Williams was taken aback by the idea of not knowing that there was a choice when buying life insurance and described the whole conversation as "disturbing,"[3] recalling his father's death and referring to the fact that people had no idea of such a product. Believing that families were paying too much for whole life policies that left them poor in the wallet and deeply underinsured, Williams joined his cousin in ITT Financial Services in 1970. In June 1973, six months before ITT went out of business, he left and came on aboard with Waddell & Reed, another BTID company that saw early success.
Williams gained momentum at W&R and became regional vice-president (RVP) the same year, having a sales force that covered 6 states. Despite the numerous benefits of working at W&R in comparison to former ITT, it became clear to Williams that with a corporate structure where the executives, not the sales force, owned the company, financial decisions would always have priority over the clients and there would be limits on how much the company could grow.
On February 10, 1977 Art Williams and 85 associates founded their own company A.L. Williams & Associates on a simple philosophy: "Buy term and invest the difference."[4] He convinced many prospectful customers to switch from their customary whole-life insurance to term policies.
Williams sold his company to New York-based Primerica Corporation for $90 million in 1989.
He has made a big amount of his fortune from investments, particularly in Citigroup, in which he owns 21 million shares.[citation needed]
[edit] Billionaire
As of 2008, he ranks as #843 on the Forbes list of the World's Billionaires with an estimated wealth of $1.4 billion.[1]
[edit] Books
Art has written these books:
- All You Can Do is All You Can Do but all you can do is enough!
- Coach
- Common Sense
- Pushing Up People
[edit] His personal blog
He has a blog called Everybody Wants a Coach.
[edit] Sports involvement
He coached football at Kendrick High School in Columbus, Georgia before he left to join ITT. He lead his brand new team to a region championship and lost a tough game to national powerhouse of Valdosta.
Art Williams owned the franchise of the CFL team Birmingham Barracudas that played the 1995 season, in an attempt to expand the CFL into the United States. Williams lost $10 million in this business venture.[citation needed]
Williams also owned the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League in the 1998-99 season. In his one year of ownership, he went a long way towards moving the team out of financial trouble by paying team creditors past due amounts of money. He also tried to sign a few veteran players in their mid-30s to get the team on the winning track in a short period of time. In spite of this, the team was still largely unsuccessful and Williams himself lost $20 million.
[edit] "DO IT" speech
In Art Williams' famous speech DO IT, he appeared before the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Washington, DC and delivers his own classic depiction of his business philosophy, with introduction by Dr. Jerry Falwell, Chancellor, Liberty University.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Forbes 2008, accessed on March 6, 2008
- ^ The 700 Club. "Art Williams : The Life Coach", Christian Broadcasting Network. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
- ^ Williams, Art; Karen Kassel Hutto (June 2006). Coach. Atlanta, Georgia: Art Williams Productions. ISBN 0-9786266-0-5.
- ^ Williams biography, accessed on July 8, 2006
