1812 - The Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities is incorporated, the first
corporation to be organized in America solely for issuing life insurance policies and annuities. The first policy is issued in 1813. The company discontinues issuing life policies in 1872.
1830 - New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the first American life insurance company to employ agents, is started. The company later discontinues its life insurance business and subsequently is merged with the Bank of New York.
1835 - A charter is granted to New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston—the first to a mutual company in America. The company begins operating in December 1843.
1836 - The Girard Life Insurance, Annuity and Trust Company of Philadelphia is established on the new principle of granting policyholders participation in profits. The first policy dividends are allotted in 1844 as additions of insurance to policies in force three or more years. Initially a stock company, the insurer later becomes a trust company.
1840 - The New York Legislature passes a bill providing that the proceeds of a policy made out to a widow as beneficiary must be paid to her, exempt from creditors’ claims. Enacted into law, this measure strengthens the protective power of life insurance policies.
1842 - The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York is chartered. The company’s first policy is issued February 1, 1843, marking the beginning of mutual life insurance as it is known today.
1848 - The first policy loans are granted.
1849 - New York passes the first general insurance law.
1851 - New Hampshire establishes the first regulatory body to examine the affairs of insurance companies.
1853 - Policy valuation tables, which Elizur Wright developed over nine years, are published.
1857 - New York City establishes a pension fund for its policemen, the first pension plan covering state or local government employees.
1859 - New York establishes the first state insurance department.
1861 - Massachusetts is the first state to require nonforfeiture values as part of life policies. The first war risk insurance is written by life insurance companies during the Civil War.
1864 - The Manhattan Life Insurance Company is the first U.S. company to write an incontestable clause into a policy.
1866 - The Treasury Department rules that death benefits from a life insurance policy are not subject to an income tax enacted in 1862 to fund the Civil War.
1868 - The American Experience Table of Mortality is published as part of a New York law. Covering experience from 1843 to 1858, it remains the table most widely used by American companies until the 1940s.
1869 - The U.S. Supreme Court holds insurance not to be a transaction in commerce, and affirms the validity of state regulation of insurance. The earliest organization of life insurance agents is recorded in Chicago.
1871 - The first convention of state insurance commissioners is held in New York City.
1873 - The first weekly premium policy is issued in the United States.
1875 - The industrial insurance agency system is introduced in the United States. The first pension plan in U.S. industry is established by the American Express Company, financed solely by the employer.
1880 - The first formal pension plan supported jointly by employer and employee contributions is established by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. Cash surrender values are first established by law in Massachusetts.
1892 - Columbia University adopts a pension plan for its professors, the first private college retirement plan, effective at age 65 with a minimum of 15 years’ service.
1893 - The first pension plan for public school teachers is established in Chicago.
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