Transamerica Corporation

The Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco

In October 1904, A.P. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.[3][4] In October 1928, Giannini created a holding company that he named the Trans-America Corporation, which owned Bank of America, Bank of Italy, Bancitaly Corporation, National Bankitaly Company, California Joint Stock Land Bank, and Banca d'America e d'Italia, which gave it assets in excess of $1.5 billion (equivalent to $26 billion in 2022).[5][6][5][7][8][9] The Trans-America Corporation original headquarters was located at 4 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco.[10] The Bank of Italy later merged with Bank of America, Los Angeles in 1928, which was then renamed Bank of America in 1930.[3][11]

In March 1930, Transamerica acquired Occidental Life Insurance Company, founded in 1906.[12] At the time, Occidental had over $25 million in assets and over $150 million in life insurance policies in force.[12] Giannini said the purchase of the West Coast-based life insurance company was part of a plan for Transamerica to control every type of financial service.[12] Following the acquisition, Occidental was renamed Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company.[13]

Over time, the company became a more diversified conglomerate that included the film distributor United Artists,[14] Transamerica Airlines and Budget Rent a Car.[15]

In 1972, the company completed construction of the Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper in San Francisco which served as its headquarters for many years. Although the company currently retains only a few offices in the building, the pyramid is still depicted in the company's logo and marketing materials.[16][17]

In the 1980s, Transamerica began to divest and focused exclusively on financial services.[18] It was eventually reduced to three main product divisions: insurance, investments, and retirement planning. In July 1999, Transamerica CEO Frank C. Herringer announced that Aegon, the Netherlands-based insurer, would acquire the company.[19] Transamerica Occidental merged into Transamerica Life Insurance Company on October 1, 2008.[20]

In 2018, Transamerica entered a 10 year, $2 billion agreement with Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian technology company, to digitize their policies under a single platform. However, this project was abandoned in 2023.[21]

Transamerica primarily offers insurance and financial services. Types of life and health insurance policies offered include term life, whole life, universal life, variable universal life, accidental death,[22] Medicare supplement, and long-term care.[23] Transamerica companies also offer a variety of mutual funds and annuities.[24] Transamerica has over 15,000 licensed insurance agents just in the state of California.

Transamerica's retirement division offers defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution retirement plans,[25] including 401(k) and 403(b), 457, profit sharing, money purchase, cash balance, Taft-Hartley, multiple employer plans, nonqualified deferred compensation, and rollover individual retirement accounts. Other services include plan-level record keeping and administrative services, participant communications and education services, fiduciary risk mitigation services, open investment architecture, and compliance guidance and regulatory support.[26]

In December 2020, Transamerica announced it would no longer sell variable annuities with benefit riders and fixed index annuities and is also exiting the standalone long-term care market.[27][28][29]

Transamerica is a long-time sponsor of Cedar Rapids native and 12-time PGA Tour winner Zach Johnson.[30][31] Transamerica also sponsors Kyle Stanley,[32] 2009 Open Championship winner Stewart Cink, and Azahara Munoz, in addition to the American Junior Golf Association and its annual Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-America teams.[33]

With a large employee presence in Denver, Transamerica in 2015 became the shirt sponsor of the Colorado Rapids, winners of the 2010 MLS Cup. Transamerica has an additional sponsorship agreement with Rapids and United States national team goalkeeper Tim Howard.[33]

Transamerica currently collaborates with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, as well as the American Heart Association.[33][34]

Transamerica funds two foundations: the Aegon Transamerica Foundation and the Transamerica Institute. It created the Aegon Transamerica Foundation in 1994 to provide financial grants to community non-profit organizations. Transamerica employees also volunteer services to these organizations.[35] The foundation received the Corporate Citizenship Award in 2013 for creating the first urban farm in Iowa.[36]

The Transamerica Institute consists of two divisions: the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Transamerica Center for Health Studies. The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies researches and provides education on trends, issues, and opportunities related to saving and planning for retirement.[37] The Transamerica Center for Health Studies focuses on identifying, researching, and analyzing health care issues facing consumers and employers.[38] The Transamerica Institute is funded by contributions from Transamerica Life Insurance Company.[39]

• Transamerica Pyramid
• Old Transamerica Building

• Official website
• Transamerica Institute
• Transamerica Center for Retirement Services
• Transamerica Center for Health Studies
• Aegon website
• Transamerica agent directory