Unum

Union Mutual Life Insurance was incorporated in 1848 in Maine.[9] The company issued its first policy, which covered the life of founder and company president Elisha B. Pratt for $5000 (equivalent to $175,880 in 2022), on October 1, 1849.[9] Union Mutual's principal office at the time was located in Boston, Massachusetts, where Pratt resided.[9][10] 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.[9] The company relocated to Portland, Maine.[9][10]

In 1940, the company acquired most of Massachusetts Accident Company's health and accident insurance business.[10] The acquisition was Union Mutual's first expansion beyond individual life and endowment insurance.[10][11] In 1969, Union Mutual established the insurance industry's first downstream holding company, which facilitated the company's continued expansion and diversification.[12][13] Union Mutual also established its group disability business in the 1960s.[10][11] Group disability would become the company's flagship product.[14][15]

Union Mutual became the first major mutual insurance company to demutualize in 1986.[10] 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.[10][16] Union Mutual, now renamed Unum, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1986.[12]

The company also began selling off underperforming businesses during the 1980s.[10] From 1982 to 1990, Unum abandoned many insurance products, including medical insurance, individual life insurance, general investment contracts, and individual annuities and pensions.[10] Under the leadership of then-CEO James Orr, the company turned its focus to long-term group disability insurance.[10]

In March 1990, Unum acquired National Employers Life Assurance Holdings, which at the time was the United Kingdom's largest disability insurer.[17] The company later acquired Duncanson & Holt, a reinsurer and insurance underwriter for the accident and health insurance sectors.[18] In 1993, Unum acquired the Colonial Companies, parent company of Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company.[19] Colonial focused on individual insurance products, including accident, cancer and life insurance policies.[19] Unum began offering individual disability policies under the Unum brand once again in 1995.[10]

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.[20] 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.[20] 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.[21] Robert Maclellan, the son of Thomas, assumed the presidency of Provident following his father's death.[21][22] Provident began selling life insurance the following year, in 1917, and the first life insurance policy issued by the company covered Robert Maclellan's life.[22] The company also began offering railroad insurance.[22]

Provident wrote its first group policy in 1924. The company expanded its operations with its 1926 acquisition of Detroit, Michigan-based Standard Accident Company. Provident operated in 34 states by 1928. It also acquired Southern Surety Company in 1931 and Meridian Insurance of West Virginia in 1938.[22] The company expanded into Canada in 1948.[22]

In November 1993, J. Harold Chandler became president and chief executive officer of Provident.[23] Chandler had previously served as a senior executive at NationsBank.[23] Chandler initiated a company-wide restructuring at Provident, which included the 1995 sale of its health-related business to Healthsource for $231 million.[24] Provident also increased its focus on individual disability and life policies with the 1997 acquisition of the Paul Revere Corporation, a Worcester, Massachusetts-based provider of individual disability insurance, from Textron for $1.2 billion.[25] The purchase of Paul Revere made Provident the nation's largest provider of individual disability policies.[25]

Unum and Provident announced their intention to merge in November 1998.[14] When the merger was completed in 1999, the new company, named UnumProvident, was the United States' largest disability insurance provider.[26] Then-Unum chairman and chief executive James Orr was retained in as chairman and CEO of UnumProvident, which was headquartered in Portland, Maine.[26]

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.[27] The company sold Provident National Assurance, a holding company for its life insurance and variable annuity business, to Allstate in 2001.[28] In 2002, UnumProvident relocated its headquarters from Portland, Maine to Chattanooga, Tennessee.[29] The former Provident Companies was headquartered in Chattanooga.[29]

Unum received negative attention in 2002, when California regulators fined Unum, and alleged that the company inappropriately denied long-term disability insurance claims.[30] Unum stated that "only 2% of the policyholders who filed a claim with the company last year [2001] were found not to be disabled, an amount consistent with prior experience."[31]

UnumProvident acquired Sun Life Financial's United Kingdom-based group insurance business in 2003.[32] Thomas Watjen replaced Orr as UnumProvident’s chief executive later that year.[8] The company also sold its Japanese and Argentine businesses.[32]

In 2004, Unum entered into a regulatory settlement agreement (RSA) with insurance regulators in over 40 states.[33] The settlement related to Unum's handling of disability claims and required the company "to make significant changes in corporate governance, implement revisions to claim procedures and provide for a full re-examination of both reassessed claims and disability insurance claim decisions after the January 2005 effective date of the RSA."[34] The review was completed in 2008, and resulted in a 41.7% reversal, "in whole or part", and an additional $676.2 million of benefits paid nationwide by Unum.[35] The state of Maine press release announcing the result, praised regulators for their work, and the company for coming into compliance.[35]

In 2007, UnumProvident was renamed Unum.[36] The Unum moniker was last used by the Unum Corporation prior to the 1999 merger.[36] In 2012 and 2013, Unum partnered with the Consumer Federation of America to release reports which examined the use of disability insurance by American workers.[37][38] According to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that were cited by the report, two-thirds of American workers do not carry disability insurance policies.[39] In addition, the report found that, among other things, workers know little about disability insurance, despite expecting financial hardship if they were to become unable to work.[37][38]

The company was involved with the UK's controversial Welfare Reform Bill in 2007 and was investigated by the BBC in England at that time.[40][41][42]

In 2008 Unum opened their IT centre of excellence in Carlow, Republic of Ireland.