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Penn Mutual
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Penn Mutual | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Mutual |
| Founded | 1847 |
| Headquarters | Horsham, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Key people | Robert E. Chappell, CEO |
| Industry | Insurance: Life & Health |
| Revenue |  $1.226 Billion USD (2005) |
| Net income | $112 Million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 3,000 (2005) |
| Slogan | A better way of life |
| Website | www.pennmutual.com |
Penn Mutual traces its beginning to 1847 when it became the seventh mutual life insurance company chartered in the United States. At the time of its organization there was a general distrust of stockholder-owned corporations so it was established as a mutual owned by its policyowners.
Mutual life insurance companies were originally organized to provide insurance-at-cost. Despite that fundamental fact, Norman F. Dacey in his best-selling book, What’s Wrong With Your Life Insurance, showed that mutuals accumulated massive profits over the years by overcharging policyowners for insurance and paying them too little in dividends.
At the beginning of the 21st century numerous mutuals such as Prudential, MetLife, and John Hancock decided to demutualize and return to policyowners all the profits they had retained over the years. Policyowners were awarded cash, stock and policy credits exceeding $100 billion in these demutualizations, which have been regarded as socially desirable.
The obvious benefits of demutualization to policyowners were vividly demonstrated by the fact that every demutualization received the approval of more than 90% of policyowners.
Penn Mutual is among the few remaining mutual life insurers that have not demutualized. As of December 31, 2006 it had accumulated more than $1 billion in profits from its policyowners under the guise of mutuality and its board of directors has staunchly refused to return that money.
Penn Mutual’s whole life policyowners would receive an estimated $11,991 per policy and its other policyowners would receive $1,795 per policy in a demutualization according to financial data contained in Penn Mutual’s 2006 Annual Statement to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the company’s 2006 Annual Report and shown at http://policyownersfordemutualization.blogspot.com.