History
Auto-Owners Insurance is one of the largest property and casualty insurance
companies domiciled in Michigan.
Auto-Owners success can be traced back from its present management to the early
leadership of Vern V. Moulton who, in 1916, organized Auto-Owners Insurance Company in Mt.
Pleasant, MI. The infant Company had no capital and was housed in one room of a bank
building.
Auto-Owners operated in Mt. Pleasant for a little less than a year. In 1917, V.V.
Moulton literally picked the Company up, placed it under his arm and in his pocket (the
Company consisted of one book of policyholders' names and $174.25 in assets), and moved
Auto-Owners to Lansing, Michigan.
It wasn't long before the Depression began, and Auto-Owners weathered even the lowest
point of that era - the bank holidays of February 1933. The Company demonstrated its
corporate toughness and financial stability by paying all claims promptly, daily, and IN
CASH! The firm was then writing more than $2.5 million in insurance premiums.
Auto-Owners entered the general casualty insurance field in 1940, having previously
written only automobile insurance. During the next five years, the Company found it
necessary to acquire three more buildings in the vicinity of its main office to accommodate its continued growth.
Today, Auto-Owners has full-service offices in Lansing, MI; Traverse City, MI;
Montgomery, Alabama; Mesa, Arizona; Westminster, Colorado; Lakeland, Florida;
Tallahassee, Florida; Duluth, Georgia; West Des Moines, Iowa; Marion, Indiana;
Peoria, Illinois; Lexington, Kentucky; White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Columbia,
Missouri; Charlotte,
North Carolina; Fargo, North Dakota; Lima, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina;
Brentwood, Tennessee; Appleton, Wisconsin; and with claim offices in 72 cities.
The Company wrote business in Michigan exclusively from 1916 until 1935 when it began
writing insurance in Indiana and Ohio. In the forties, Auto-Owners extended operations to
include Illinois and Minnesota and, during the fifties, Iowa, North and South Dakota,
Florida, Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina. The Company began
operations in Wisconsin in 1969, Georgia in 1973, Nebraska in 1978, Arizona in 1982,
Virginia in 1989, Kentucky in 1994, Kansas in 1996, Utah in 1997, Colorado in 1999, Arkansas in 2005
and Idaho in July 2006.
The current Auto-Owners home office is located in a business and residential complex
called Verndale, in Delta Township, west of Lansing. This building was constructed in 1975
and has been expanded three times, increasing its size to 404,616 square feet.
The Lansing corporate office services not only Auto-Owners Insurance Company, but its
subsidiary companies: Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company, Home-Owners Insurance Company,
Owners Insurance Company, Property-Owners Insurance Company, and Southern-Owners Insurance
Company. The Lansing Branch Underwriting and Lansing Branch Claims offices are also housed
in the same complex.
Auto-Owners success evolves from its loyal agents, policyholders
and associates. The
Companies are represented by more than 5,900 independent agencies, selling personal and
commercial property/casualty and life, health and annuity insurance in 25 states.
Total associates number more than 3,300.
The Auto-Owners Insurance Group ranks among the largest in the nation, with over
4.2 million personal, commercial and life policies issued and renewed.
The Companies also enjoy the highest possible ratings assigned
by nationally recognized independent rating authorities.