The Hartford
General Company Info
Founded in 1810, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: HIG) is one of the largest investment and insurance companies based in the United States, with offices in Japan, Brazil, Ireland, England, and the United States. The Hartford is a leading provider of investment products – annuities, mutual funds, college savings plans – as well as life insurance, group and employee benefits, automobile and homeowners' insurance, and business insurance. The Hartford serves millions of customers worldwide - including individuals, institutions, and businesses - through independent agents and brokers, financial institutions, and online. About 11,000 independent agencies and more than 100,000 registered broker/dealers sell their products. The Hartford was ranked 88th on the 2005 Fortune 100 list. It is a component of the S&P 500.
Headquarters: Hartford, Connecticut 2004 Sales: $22.7 Billion
Employment:30,000 people 2004 Net Income: $2.1 Billion
Business Profiles
Life Insurance – operates in four segments: Retail Products Group (RPG), Institutional Solutions Group (ISG), Individual Life, and Group Benefits. RPG segment offers individual variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, and retirement plan services. ISG segment offers retirement plan products and services to municipalities, institutional investment products, structured settlements, and private placement life insurance. Individual Life segment sells universal life, whole life, and term life insurance. Group Benefits segment sells group life and disability insurance, stop loss and supplementary medical coverage to employers and employer-sponsored plans, and accidental death and dismemberment and other risk coverages to employers and associations.
Property and Casualty Insurance (PCI) – operates in four segments: Business Insurance, Personal Lines, Specialty Commercial, and Others. Business Insurance segment provides workers’ compensation, property, automobile, liability, umbrella, and marine coverages, as well as commercial risk management products and services. Personal Lines segment provides automobile, homeowners’, and home-based coverages. Specialty Commercial segment offers customized insurance products and risk management services, as well as bond, professional liability, specialty casualty, and agricultural coverages. It also provides insurance products and services to captive insurance companies, pools, and self-insurance groups; and third-party administrator services for claims administration, integrated benefits, loss control, and performance measurement. Others segment consists of existing property and casualty insurance operations, including the company’s asbestos and environmental exposures.
In the news
February 6, 2006 - The next fiscal year consensus EPS estimate has changed from 9.15 to 9.18.
January 31, 2006 (PRNewswire-FirstCall) - Technology companies operate in one of the fastest growing and fastest changing industries on the planet. To better serve the $6 billion technology insurance market, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. announces the formation of its new Technology Practice Group headquartered at the company's home office in Hartford, Conn. Staffed by a dedicated team of underwriters located throughout the country, as well as legal, claim, product and risk management professionals, the group provides the tools, support and know-how to help agents protect their technology clients from a wide range of rapidly-changing business risks.
January 28, 2006 - The Hartford Financial Services Group confirmed Friday that it has started cutting 192 jobs (103 in property-casualty IT and 89 in human resources) in the Hartford area because of outsourcing, but expects to place many of the affected employees in other positions at the company. The Hartford, like many other companies, has been outsourcing certain information technology and human resource functions to vendors. Some of the jobs have been going to foreign labor.
Top Competitors
AIG - one of the world's largest insurance firms.
Citigroup - one of the world's largest financial services firms.
Prudential - one of the largest US life insurers and one of the largest insurers worldwide.
Sources: Company website, Hoovers.com, Morningstar.com, and Yahoo! Finance