Aetna

Timeline

1800s

• 1819: Thomas Kimberly Brace became the principal founder and developer of the Aetna Insurance Company, established in Hartford. One of his co-founders was Joseph Morgan, father of J. S. Morgan and grandfather of J. P. Morgan. Brace served as the company's first President. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, Yale graduate and attorney, became the second president of Aetna Insurance Company, succeeding Thomas Kimberly Brace. Ellsworth, who later became the first U.S. Patent Commissioner, served as Aetna's president until 1821, when he resigned. He continued as a director at the company for another 16 years. Ellsworth's brother, William Wolcott Ellsworth, also served as a director, as well as the company's first general counsel.
• 1820: Brace authored the rewriting of the company Charter allowing Aetna to underwrite life insurance and annuities, earning Brace the title of "father" of American life insurance.
• On May 28, 1853, the Annuity department separated from Aetna Insurance to be incorporated as the Aetna Life Insurance Company, with Eliphalet Bulkeley as president. The fire insurance company went on to become part of Connecticut General, which merged into Cigna.
• On November 29, 1853, J. B. Bennett was appointed general agent of the company.
• 1854: Aetna hired its first full-time employee, Thomas O. Enders, who later became president of the company.
• 1857: Aetna moved to new offices on Hungerford and Cone Streets in Hartford. The Panic of 1857 caused the closing of many businesses. Eliphalet Bulkeley blocked a move to liquidate the company during the economic downturn.
• During the 1850s, The Aetna Insurance Company issued life insurance policies on an undetermined number of African-American slaves, naming their owners as beneficiaries.
• 1861: Aetna began offering life insurance policies which paid dividends to policyholders just as the mutual life insurance policies did. Aetna introduced its new service with higher commissions for its agents. Life insurance policy sales grew during the American Civil War.
• 1864: By 1864, Aetna had increased its volume of business by 600% over 1861 and its annual premium income exceeded one million dollars.
• 1865: Due to the increased financial resources, by 1865 Aetna met the stringent regulatory requirements placed on life insurance companies in Massachusetts and New York and was authorized to begin soliciting business in these states.
• 1867: Company income rose from $78,000 in 1861 to $5.129 million by 1867. Aetna moved to its third home office at 670 Main Street, Hartford.
• 1868: Aetna altered its business practices, hiring its first actuary and abandoning the half-note premium system in favor of an all-cash premium plan.
• 1872: Eliphalet A. Bulkeley died and Thomas O. Enders became president.
• 1878: Aetna increased its capitalization from $150,000 to $750,000.
• 1879: Enders resigned as president and Eliphalet Bulkeley's son Morgan G. Bulkeley replaced him.
• 1888: Aetna purchased its fourth home office at 650 Main Street. It was the first building Aetna actually owned, and Aetna's home office for the next 42 years.
• 1891: Aetna issued its first accident policy to Morgan Bulkeley.
• 1892: Aetna held its first general agents conference in Chicago.
• 1899: Aetna began offering health insurance policies.

  1900s

• 1902: Aetna created an Accident and Liability department to offer employers' liability and workmen's collective insurance, alongside the growing strength of the Progressive social reform movement. This would become the cornerstone of the Aetna Accident and Liability Company.
• 1903: An Engineering and Inspection Division was created to improve workplace safety.
• 1904: Aetna introduced its first corporate seal. The logo portrayed the company's home office bursting out from within a globe, with large block typeface spelling out Aetna's ranking.
• 1907: Aetna began offering automobile insurance. This business developed into the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company.
• 1908: Aetna hired its first home office female employee, Julia Kinghorn, a telephone switchboard operator.
• 1910: Under the management of E. E. Cammack, Aetna began using Hollerith punched cards machines for tabulating and hired 35 women to input mortality statistics on keypunch machines, the company's first female home office clerks.
• 1911: Aetna began its first national advertising campaign. The same year, Aetna formed a bond department to market fidelity and surety coverages.
• 1912: Aetna introduced the first combination automobile policy, with several separate types of coverage combined into one contract. Several Aetna insureds were killed on the RMS Titanic.
• 1913: Aetna formed its second affiliate, the Automobile Insurance Company, to write fire insurance on cars. This soon expanded to include windstorm, tornado, leasehold, and ocean and inland marine insurance. Aetna formed a Group department to sell group life insurance.
• 1917: Aetna's name changes to Aetna Casualty and Surety Co.
• 1924: By 1924, Aetna had $94million, 43% of its assets, invested in farm mortgages. That year, Aetna acquired The Standard Fire Insurance Co.
• 1960: Aetna expanded outside the U.S., buying a Canadian company, Excelsior Life Insurance Company.
• 1968: In 1968, Aetna bought a majority interest in Producer's and Citizen's Cooperative Assurance Company of Sydney, Australia. Also in 1968, Aetna's stock debuted on the NYSE.
• 1970: Aetna's Pension, Casualty and Life Division under the direction of B.E. Burton, President and Lead Actuary, saw billion-dollar growth in the post-ERISA pension administration segment.
• 1981: In 1981, Aetna bought a 40% interest in two Chilean companies, and soon thereafter invested in ventures in England, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Korea.
• 1996: Aetna sold its property and casualty subsidiary to The Travelers Companies. Also in 1996, Aetna acquired U.S. Healthcare, founded by Leonard Abramson. The company's name changed to Aetna Inc.
• 1998: In 1998, Aetna bought NYLCare Health Plans from the New York Life Insurance Company for $1.05billion, adding 2.2million members.
• 1999: Aetna bought Prudential HealthCare for $1billion, making it the largest provider of health benefits in the U.S., with more than 21million members.

  2000s

• 2000: Aetna hired John Rowe as CEO and president. Rowe cut over 10,000 jobs and raised insurance premiums between 11 and 13 percent per year. Under Rowe, the company spent more than $20million to revamp its computer systems, enabling the company to identify and discontinue unprofitable accounts. Within a few years, Aetna shed 8million covered lives due to premiums that customers could no longer afford. Also in 2000, Aetna sold its financial services and international businesses to ING Group for $7.7billion, spun off its health business to its shareholders, thus focusing its business as an independent health and group benefits company. Aetna publicly apologizes for issuing coverage for the lives of slaves during the 1850s.
• 2001: Aetna recruited global public relations and marketing executive Roy Clason Jr. to lead the company's reputation management strategies during Aetna's multi-year corporate turnaround campaign.
• 2002: In 2002, Rowe shrunk Aetna's customer base from 19million members to 13million by abandoning unprofitable markets, including almost half of the counties nationwide in which it offered Medicare products.
• 2006: John Rowe stepped down as CEO and executive chairman of Aetna.
• 2007: Aetna acquired plan operator Schaller Anderson in July, signaling a push into the growing business of running plans for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
• 2008: Aetna CEO Ron Williams received $38.12million in executive compensation. Also in 2008, Aetna began offering pet health insurance through Pets Best Insurance Services.
• 2009: On September 22, more than 200 people gathered in front of Aetna's Hartford headquarters to call for a public health insurance option they said is essential to true national health care reform. On October 2, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Healthcare Advocate Kevin P. Lembo asked Aetna and four other insurance companies for information the companies may have sent policyholders regarding the impact of proposed legislation on Medicare Advantage and prescription drug programs. According to Blumenthal, some insurance companies exaggerated or stretched the impact of health care reform. On November 3, US Senator Tom Harkin, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, launched an investigation into health insurance pricing, asking Aetna and three other major insurers to justify their pricing practices. Also in November, Aetna announced the layoff of 3.5% of its work force, 625 employees. On November 30, Aetna CEO Ron Williams told analysts that Aetna would increase prices in 2010 and force 600,000 to 650,000 Aetna customers to drop their coverage. Aetna filed a $4.9billion correction to its 2008 health insurance regulatory filings on December 7, 2009. The new filings showed that Aetna spent less on small business health care than previously reported.