Are there insurance company equivalents of credit unions?

Question

I had someone once tell me there were insurance companies that acted like credit unions. Where the members owned the company and it made things cheaper. Does anyone know about these? Is there a list to choose from, provided you are qualified.

Answer 1

They are called mutuals, or mutual insurance companies. However, they are not necessarily cheaper. Moreover, there is a trend of converting mutual insurance companies into stock insurance companies.

The largest mutuals in life and health lines are:

New York Life Insurance
TIAA-CREF
Mass. Mutual Life
Northwestern Mutual
Guardian Life of America
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Western & Southern Financial
Mutual of Omaha
CUNA Mutual Group
Mutual of America Life
Knights of Columbus

The largest mutuals in property and casualty lines are:

State Farm
Auto-Owners Insurance
Country Insurance & Financial Services
Sentry Insurance Group
Amica Mutual Insurance
Federated Mutual Ins.

Answer 2

Your best bet is to shop for insurance without regard for the structure of the company. Just look for good coverage at a good price from an well-rated insurer. You can get some help from your state insurance department in deciding which insurance companies are worthy of your consideration. For this purpose, go to http://www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm and click on your state to go to the right web site. What you want to look at is the "complaint index" for the companies which sell the kind of insurance you are considering. Try to find a company with a low complaint index.
The reason I advise ignoring the structure of the company is that you can find a good investor-owned company that operates efficiently so that it can pay claims to its policyholders and dividends to its stockholders. Conversely, you can find an inefficient mutual insurance company (owned by policy holders) where the top management gets outrageous salaries, there is very little oversight, and the claims are poorly paid. So, "you can't tell a book from its cover" and you can't select an insurer from its structure.
Best wishes.

Answer 3

A "mutual" company is similar to a credit union in that the policy holders "own" the company.
You have to be careful however cause some companies that still use the work mutual are not true mutual companies.
But defintion wise that's what you are asking.

Answer 4

Lloyds of London is a member supported institution, much like a credit union.

Answer 5

There are, but they are almost gone. Prudential was one, until they converted. They are mostly now small groups and societies that offer their members (for example) life insurance in that way. You'll probably not be able to find a list