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Insurance Came About
In today's time life without insurance seems impossible. But before the year 1752, it was normal to not have insurance because insurance wasn't a thing. The first insurance company in the U.S. came about in 1752 during the colonial days. This was the Philadelphia Contributionship, co-founded by Ben Franklin in 1752. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/american-insurance.asp -
Insurance Grew
After 1910 insurance began a steady growth rate in the United States and it was surely needed. The annual growth rate of insurance rose over the time span of 1910-1990, about 8.4 percent. https://www.britannica.com/topic/insurance/Historical-development-of-insurance -
Social Security Act
When the Social Security Act was put into play in 1935. This act provided old-age assistance and grants to states for unemployment compensation. This took away some of the insurance companies territory,and sent a clear message to encourage the industry to regulate itself, by the fear of the government taking more involvement. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/american-insurance.asp -
Increase in Sales
Despite the headwinds for the liability insurance market, the overall US insurance market continued to grow throughout the 1970s-1980s. From 1960 to 1985, property, casualty, and life insurance premiums increased from around 15 billion to
about144 billion dollars. https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:36ebe594-097d-4d4d-b3a7-2cbb8d856e85/150Y_Markt_Broschuere_USA_EN_Inhalt.pdf -
Allstate Took the Chance
Once the number of companies opted to use multiple channels grew. Classifying companies as a direct writer or agent was becoming less effective. Over the first directors to use many independent agents to sale insurance in rural areas, they took the risk because it could've very well been non-profitable to have the office out there. It was Allstate to take the chance in 1974.https://www.iii.org/article/background-on-buying-insurance -
Writing Premiums
In 1987 the United States insurance agents and agencies had written 37 percent of all the premiums that were wrote worldwide.https://www.britannica.com/topic/insurance/Historical-development-of-insurance -
Insurance Ups and Downs
Agents began to lose business at steady rate from the early 1980s to the 2000s across the U.S. They re-gained some business in the mid-2000s, but declined again in the late 2000s. The decline in business slowed in in the 2010s. Independent agents have lost significant personal lines market share since the early 1970s when insurance came about. Although the negative trend slowed from 2000-2007, it may be accelerating for the better. https://www.iii.org/article/background-on-buying-insurance -
Life Insurance became More Popular
By early 2000's, life insurers began to thrive. Many companies adopted the mutual way of organization to build confidence. Even low income families began to but insurance because they realized how important it was to have insurance.https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:36ebe594-097d-4d4d-b3a7-2cbb8d856e85/150Y_Markt_Broschuere_USA_EN_Inhalt.pdf -
Growth
The amount of insurance agencies and brokers haver increased. They have grown all together about 0.3% each year overall on average since the year 2017, all the way to 2022.https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/number-of-businesses/insurance-brokers-agencies-united-states/ -
Today's Time
In today's time insurance agencies have grown tremendously since they first came about. There are around 415,446 insurance agencies and businesses in the U.S. Increasing every year, there are still more to come. https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/number-of-businesses/insurance-brokers-agencies-united-states/
