Founding as Unum corporation
Union Mutual Life Insurance was incorporated in 1848 in Maine.[6] The company issued its first policy, which covered the life of founder and company president Elisha B. Pratt for $5000, on October 1, 1849.[6] Union Mutual's principal office at the time was located in Boston, Massachusetts, where Pratt resided.[6][7] Union Mutual remained headquartered in Boston until 1881, when the state of Maine passed a law that required the principal office and headquarters of all insurance companies incorporated by the state to be located within the state.[6] The company relocated to Portland, Maine.[6][7]
In 1940, the company acquired most of Massachusetts Accident Company's health and accident insurance business.[7] The acquisition was Union Mutual's first expansion beyond individual life and endowment insurance.[7][8] In 1969, Union Mutual established the insurance industry's first downstream holding company, which facilitated the company's continued expansion and diversification.[9][10] Union Mutual also established its group disability business in the 1960s.[7][8] Group disability would become the company's flagship product.[11]
Union Mutual became the first major mutual insurance company to demutualize in 1986.[7] Company CEO Colin Hampton had been pushing for demutualization since 1970 and the company formally began the process of converting to a publicly held company in January 1985.[7][13] Union Mutual, now renamed Unum, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1986.[9]
The company also began selling off underperforming businesses during the 1980s.[7] From 1982 to 1990, Unum abandoned many insurance products, including medical insurance, individual life insurance, general investment contracts, and individual annuities and pensions.[7] Under the leadership of then-CEO James Orr, the company turned its focus to long-term group disability insurance.[7]
In March 1990, Unum acquired National Employers Life Assurance Holdings, which at the time was the United Kingdom's largest disability insurer.[14] The company later acquired Duncanson & Holt, a reinsurer and insurance underwriter for the accident and health insurance sectors.[15] In 1993, Unum acquired the Colonial Companies, parent company of Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company.[16] Colonial focused on individual insurance products, including accident, cancer and life insurance policies.[16] Unum began offering individual disability policies under the Unum brand once again in 1995.[7]
Growth as the Provident companies
The Provident companies was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee in May 1887 as Mutual Medical Aid and Accident Insurance Company. The company originally specialized in providing both medical-aid and accident insurance to employees in high-risk industries, including miners and coal workers.[17] Within a few months, the company’s founders became concerned that a single disease epidemic would bankrupt the company. Mutual Medical Aid and Accident purchased back all outstanding medical-aid policies and reincorporated as Provident Accident Insurance Company. Provident only issued accident policies.
In 1892, Thomas Maclellan and John McMaster purchased a 50% stake in the company for $1000. The two men purchased the remaining 50% equity in 1895 and Maclellan was the company's sole owner and president by 1900.[17] Maclellan reorganized the company from being mutually held to a stock company in 1910.
Thomas Maclellan served as president of Provident until he was struck by an automobile and unexpectedly died 1916.[18] Robert Jardine Maclellan, the son of Thomas and Helen Maclellan, and the maternal grandson of railroad promoter Robert Jardine, assumed the presidency of Provident following his father's death.[18]
Unum Group (1999–present)
Unum and Provident of Chattanooga, Tennessee announced their intention to merge in November 1998.[11] When the merger was completed in 1999, the new company, named UnumProvident, was the United States' largest disability insurance provider.[23] Then-Unum chairman and chief executive James Orr was retained in as chairman and CEO of UnumProvident, which was headquartered in Portland, Maine.[23]
Company Chief Operating Officer J. Harold Chandler, who had served as Provident's chief executive prior to the merger, succeeded Orr as UnumProvident CEO in November 1999.[24] The company sold Provident National Assurance, a holding company for its life insurance and variable annuity business, to Allstate in 2001.[25] In 2002, UnumProvident relocated its headquarters from Portland, Maine to
