New York Life Insurance, New York Life Insurance Companies

If you are looking for quality New York life insurance, you could look at a number of different companies but one that stands out from the rest is New York Life Insurance Company.  This particular company, which trades under the symbol of NYLIC on the NY Stock Exchange, is the nation’s largest mutual life insurance company in existence.  However, the New York Life Insurance Company is also the world’s largest insurer of life insurance policies.

Today, this company has approximately $300 billion in assets, and another $13 billion in surplus for budget.  In 2009, the New York Life Insurance Co. hit number 76 on Forbes list of the top 100 privately held insurance companies.  Then three years ago, the company reached its best rating since being in existence when it was given a four-star rating by four top, independent rating companies to include Moody’s and Fitch, and Standard & Poor’s, among others.

Unlike other life insurance companies, one of the things that separate the New York Life Insurance Company aside is that they have the financial backing.  Because of this, the company is solid.  This allowed this particular company to reach and maintain the highest rating given from the four top rating firms, the last being in 2008.  In addition to selling different life insurance policies, the affiliates of the New York Life Insurance Company also sells retail mutual funds and institutional funds.

The New York Life Insurance Co. was first established in 1840, at which time it was opened as Nautilus Insurance Company.  At that time, the company only had assets of $17,000, which shows just how far it has grown.  Even the original building where the company set roots at 112-114 Broadway was simple yet functional.  Today, the New York Life Insurance Co. site is an architectural masterpiece created by Cass Gilbert, famed architect, sitting at 51 Madison Avenue.

Not long after the first office was opened, the President took the existing offerings and expanded them into even more insurance policy types.  Interestingly, when the New York Life Insurance Company first started, it was noted for providing plantation owners life insurance on the slaves that worked the land.  In fact, during the 1840s, the original company, Nautilus sold 485 such policies known as “slaveholder life insurance” in just two years.

Thankfully, slavery was ended and the New York Life Insurance Company moved on to creating new business practices.  One such change was payment a cash dividend to policyholders on life insurance, the first company in the United States to do so.  In addition, the New York Life Insurance Co. was the first to offer life insurance policies to women, giving them the same policy rates as what men were offered.  Taking advantage of this opportunity, one of the first women to purchase such a policy was none other than Susan B Anthony.

Today, the New York Life Insurance Company has weathered a financial crisis and still come out strong.  This company still sells long-term insurance policies, annuities, mutual funds, and other types of policies to include those for retirement and asset management.