Tower Insurance

Tower is a New Zealand and Pacific Islands insurance company that provides car, home, contents, business, boat, pet, travel and other general insurance.

History

In 1869 the New Zealand Government provided the capital for the creation of the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department (better known simply as Government Life).

Uniquely (in New Zealand), it used custom postage stamps, first issued in 1891, due to a dispute with the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department over the correct calculation of postage costs.[2] All issues featured lighthouses, either in abstract designs or specific lighthouses from around New Zealand. New designs were issued in 1905, 1947 (surcharged at the time of decimalisation in 1967), 1969, and 1981. Use of these stamps was withdrawn in 1989.

Government Life became Tower Corporation in 1987, at a time when several New Zealand government departments and organisations were being corporatised or converted into state-owned enterprises. Three years later, ownership of Tower was transferred to policyholders as the business was mutualised.[3] Being a mutual insurance company caused difficulties in raising capital and nine years later, in 1999, Tower demutualised and listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.[4]