State Farm Insurance

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State Farm
Type	Mutual (main company)
Founded	1922-06-07[1]
Founder	George J. Mecherle
Headquarters	Bloomington, Illinois, USA
No. of locations	17,000 agents 391 claim offices 24 operations centers[2]
Area served	USA and Canada
Key people	Edward B. Rust, Jr. (Chairman/CEO)
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Services	Insurance, Banking, Investing
Revenue	US$61,611 million (2007) ▲1.8%[3]
Net income	US$3,664 million (2007) ▲US$687 million[4]
Total assets	US$104,842 million (2007) ▲US$6,494 million[4]
Total equity	US$58,142 million (2006)[5]
Employees	68,000[2]
Divisions	Insurance; mutual funds; State Farm Bank
Subsidiaries	see Companies below
Website	www.statefarm.com

State Farm is a group of insurance and financial services companies. State Farm has remained the largest automobile insurer in the United States continuously since 1942^[1] and insures more cars and homes in the United States than any other insurer.^[2]

The group's main company is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, a mutual insurance firm that also owns the other State Farm companies. The corporate headquarters are in Bloomington, Illinois.

State Farm is ranked 32nd in the 2008 Fortune 500, which lists American companies by revenue.^[3] According to the Fortune Global 500, State Farm is also the world's largest mutual "P&C" (property & casualty insurance) firm; the only other P&C mutual in the Global 500 is Groupama in Europe.^[5]

Contents 1 History 2 Companies 3 CEOs 4 Financial services 5 Criticism 6 Competition 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

State Farm was founded in 1922 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.^[1]

State Farm has grown to include 67,000 employees and 17,000 agents servicing 77 million policies in the United States and Canada, and serving more than 1.9 million bank accounts.^[2]

Edward B. Rust, Jr. is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and president and chief executive officer of State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, State Farm Life Insurance Company, and other principal State Farm affiliates.

On March 1, 2007, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company announced it will pay $1.25 billion in dividends to its mutual auto insurance policyholders in 46 states, the District of Columbia and the Canadian province of New Brunswick.^[6]

[edit] Companies

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company also owns the other State Farm Companies:^[1]

• State Farm Fire and Casualty Company
• State Farm Life Insurance Company
• State Farm Life and Accident Assurance Company (NY/CT/WI)
• State Farm County Mutual Insurance Company of Texas (TX auto)
• State Farm Indemnity Company / State Farm Guaranty Insurance Company (NJ auto)
• State Farm General Insurance Company (CA home)
• State Farm Florida Insurance Company (FL home)
• State Farm Lloyds (TX home/commercial)
• State Farm Bank, F.S.B.
• State Farm Investment Management Corp. (SFIMC)
• State Farm VP Management Corp. (SFVPMC)

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[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

In recent years, 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 Group, 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 E*TRADE.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

A recent investigation by CNN reported that major car insurance companies, including State Farm and Allstate Insurance, are increasingly fighting claims from those injured by their insured members. In some cases the settlement proposed amounts to just $50 or the threat that any lawsuit would be made so expensive and time-consuming that it wouldn't be worth the victim's time. State Farm and Allstate have denied these allegations.^[7]

[edit] Competition

Major insurance competitors include Allstate, American Family Insurance, Farmers Insurance Group, Nationwide, Progressive, GEICO, and USAA.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• State Farm's 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 then-soon-to-be-famous American songwriter Barry Manilow in 1971.^[8]
• The narrator for the State Farm advertisements is Patrick Dempsey
• State Farm's internal newsletter is called the ALFI, which stands for "Auto, Life, Fire Insurance"
• As of the year 2005, State Farm is insuring about 40 million vehicles.^[9] Relatively speaking, the vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper would encircle the planet Earth four and a half times. That is also roughly 112,500 miles.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• State Farm — main official website
  • State Farm Bank — official website
  • State Farm's Youth Advisory Board — official website
• State Farm's University of Illinois Research Center