Genworth Financial is a Fortune 500 insurance company. The firm was founded as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871. In 1986, Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance, which became Aon plc in 1987. In 1996, Life of Virginia was sold to GE Capital.In May 2004, Genworth Financial was formed out of various insurance businesses of General Electric in the largest IPO of that year.
The Genworth Financial family of companies has three segments: Retirement & Protection, US Mortgage Insurance, and International. Products and services include life and long-term care insurance, mortgage insurance, and annuities. Its legal structure is set up as six separate companies.
On April 1, 2013, Genworth announced the completion of a legal entity reorganization, with the result being the creation of a new ultimate holding company. This restructuring separated the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries from the overall firm.
Company history
A.G. McIlwaine was the company’s first president. Begun by two dozen Petersburg investors, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia offered its first policies to local customers before expanding to Richmond, Virginia. Under general agent F.W. Chamberlayne, the Richmond Department attracted a large number of new clients. Within the first decade, the client base expanded beyond the South.
As the Life Insurance Company of Virginia grew, the headquarters were moved to Richmond, Virginia. By the turn of the twentieth century, the company offered products through different divisions,. The “Ordinary Division” of the company offered whole life annuity options and related products, the “Intermediate Division” offered term life products, endowment policies, and limited payment policies, and an industrial division offered inexpensive products.
Mortgage insurance
Genworth’s offers mortgage insurance, with benefits including homebuyer privileges, which provides rebates to items purchased for the home, and the homeowner assistance program, in which Genworth professionals work with homeowners and lenders to structure a feasible loan repayment program.
Genworth Financial offers a range of products and services, including long-term care insurance and mortgage insurance. In 2016, the company suspended sales of annuities and life insurance, putting the existing books of business in to runoff. In 2012, Genworth’s U.S. companies paid over $3.2 billion in benefits to life insurance, long-term care insurance, and annuity policyholders and beneficiaries.
The company provides individual long-term care insurance, group long-term care insurance for employers offering benefits to employees, and caregiver support services.
Prior to 2016, the company offered several annuities: fixed immediate annuities, traditional fixed deferred annuities, and fixed index annuities.