Nassau’s 1851 Legacy
Nassau has grown from a combination of acquisitions and newly established companies, and
we can trace our legacy back to 1851.
The first company Nassau acquired, Phoenix, was founded in 1851 as the American Temperence Life Insurance Company, a Hartford, CT-based company that insured only those who abstained from alcohol. Ten years later, as the temperance movement waned, the company changed its name to Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company and began insuring drinkers and non-drinkers alike.
Around that same time, Home Life Insurance Company, which later merged with Phoenix, was formed in Brooklyn, NY, and was the first life insurer approved to do business by the newly formed New York Insurance Department.
In these early years, Phoenix and Home Life brushed up against major historical events that shaped the country and the companies. These included Phoenix insuring President Abraham Lincoln and paying the claim to his survivors after his 1865 assassination, and Home Life paying stockholder interest in gold after the Panic of 1873.
The 20th century brought other “firsts” as our oldest legacy companies established reputations for innovation and forward thinking, including:
- Being the first company to offer reduced premiums for women in 1955 and for nonsmokers in 1967
- Pioneering group life and health insurance plans for small businesses in 1957
- Building the world’s first two-sided office building in 1963, which continues to serve as Nassau’s headquarters
Another legacy company, the Kansas Life Insurance Company, later known as The Pyramid Life Insurance Company, was formed in 1914. It was one of the first to offer Medicare Supplement policies in 1966, shortly after President Johnson signed Medicare into law.
As the new millennium began, Phoenix went public after nearly 150 years as a mutual insurance company and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. While the Great Recession presented plenty of challenges several years later, the company adapted to conditions by forming a distribution company and shifting its focus to fixed annuities to meet growing retirement needs.
Soon after Nassau was founded in 2015, we signed the agreement to acquire Phoenix. Today, Nassau has a fully integrated platform across its insurance and asset management businesses and serves as an economic catalyst in Connecticut, New York, and our other locations in the U.S. and internationally. See more about the Nassau Growth Story.
