Aflac

AFLAC insures more than 40 million people in the United States and Japan with a variety of supplemental insurance products. Our mission is to provide the best supplemental insurance value in the marketplace. Although AFLAC is the leading provider of individual insurance at the worksite in the United States and the largest foreign insurance company in Japan, we continue to look for even more ways to widen our reach into both markets. This effort is AFLAC's way of improving a business that most observers would say doesn't need improving. We believe the way to maintain our leadership in the supplemental insurance market is to fix it, even if it isn't broken. Key Dates: American Family Corporation is renamed AFLAC, Inc.; John Amos dies of cancer. In 1955 a young lawyer named John B. Amos moved to Columbus, Georgia, and with his two brothers founded the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus, Georgia. After struggling for three years selling life, health, and accident insurance door-to-door in Georgia and Alabama, Amos decided that AFLAC would do better if it could find a specific market niche. In 1958 he developed a cancer insurance policy based on the polio policies of previous decades, and AFLAC's 150 licensed agents sold 5,810 cancer care policies in the first year. The company continually looked for new ways to market its policies. In 1964 it began making presentations to groups rather than to individuals and developed the 'cluster-selling' technique, which was very successful. Agents first approached a company or organization for permission to make a presentation to its employees or members. The agent made a group sales pitch with the implicit endorsement of the company. This method allowed agents to reach more prospects at a given time, and the cooperation of the organization was a selling point. In addition, many companies implemented a payroll deduction plan for the premiums, reducing AFLAC's processing costs. Cluster-selling boosted the company's premiums to $7 million by 1967. During the late 1960s AFLAC greatly increased the number of states in which it did business. An agreement with the Globe Life Insurance Company of Chicago, which was licensed to sell insurance throughout the country, resulted in AFLAC's policies being sold nationwide; Globe sold the policies and AFLAC reinsured them, so that when AFLAC wanted to be licensed itself, it could show state insurance commissioners that its policies were already available in their state and that the company was already making good on claims. Between 1969 and 1971 AFLAC increased the number of states in which it operated from 11 to 42. In 1973 American Family Corporation was formed as a holding company for AFLAC. A year later the company's headquarters moved from a modest collection of houses into the new 18-story American Family Center. In June 1974, American Family's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Much of AFLAC's success in the mid-1970s was the result of its entry into the rapidly expanding Japanese market. When Chairman John Amos visited Japan in 1970, he was convinced that it would be an excellent market for his cancer care policies. The Japanese industry, however, was well entrenched, and foreign companies found it virtually impossible to get licensing. Amos was not deterred and quickly formulated a plan to gain acceptance for his company's product in Japan. When AFLAC was licensed by Japan's Ministry of Finance to sell insurance in 1974, it was only the second U.S. company to be allowed to do so in more than two decades. Part of AFLAC's success came from the fact that it offered a product that was not yet available from Japanese insurers, at a time when cancer awareness was expanding. Another factor was AFLAC's decision to employ retired workers as its agents, a move that impressed both former coworkers--potential policyholders--and the Ministry of Finance. In addition, Amos's choice of company officers was truly inspired: it i