We are proud to offer two Northwestern Mutual scholarships: one for childhood cancer survivors and one for siblings of those affected by childhood cancer.
Since , the Northwestern Mutual Foundation has supported the communities where we live and work. Need to continue working on an application in progress? You will want to use this link instead of the one shared in your original invite. We believe in a future without childhood cancer Since , our employees and financial professionals are committed to accelerating the search for a cure for childhood cancer while providing support to families facing the disease and survivors struggling with treatment late effects.
Independent Broker-Dealers. We're top ranked for disability income insurance. Who we are Putting our clients first since day one. We help you live the life you want, and the life you never thought you could. Three fourths of a circle. Circle opens on bottom right for text. As a mutual company, we don't have shareholders — we report to our policyowners. We're here to help. Palmer, a lawyer and one of the original group of Milwaukee investors, was elected president. Palmer would remain president for 34 years.
The agents were not left voiceless. An association of agents had been created in , but was inactive for several years. It was revived in and served as a forum unique to the life insurance industry at which field agents discussed problems of mutual interest and maintained communication with the home office. A year later the company hired salaried loan agents, effectively separating the selling of insurance from the lending of funds.
In the finance committee was established to focus exclusively on financial and investment questions. It was created to ease the burden on the executive committee, but its membership duplicated most of the important personnel. In NML created the insurance and agency committee with general responsibility for all phases of the insurance program. From that point until the turn of the 20th century, the life insurance industry was one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.
Many new types of contracts were introduced by companies aggressively competing for sales. NML approached most of these new developments with its traditional conservatism.
NML established an inquiry department in to cope with a problem inherent in insurance sales, "moral hazard," namely, that persons most likely to submit claims would be those most likely to demand policies. Health examinations and character checks were required for each applicant. The company restricted itself only to the "healthiest" regions of the country, those that did not have high mortality rates.
By , the company's sales agencies were closely integrated with Northwestern's overall management policies. Management also attempted to be more responsive to the policyholders by establishing a policyholders examining committee in which annually evaluated everything from the company's accounting practices to managerial performance.
The growth of sales and development of new types of policies led to abuses in the industry. The Armstrong Committee investigation in New York, aimed at the three largest companies in that state, provoked a similar investigation by the Wisconsin legislature aimed at NML. While the Armstrong hearings discovered considerable concentration of control at the top, NML was found to have a relatively large group of self-perpetuating managers.
The rivalries that existed between the heads of the New York companies led to such practices as twisting use of misrepresentation to have someone end one life insurance policy and buy another and rebating return of part of a premium payment in the attempt to increase sales. Even though NML condemned and canceled agents found guilty of these practices, the legislature found examples. Similarly, the Armstrong investigation strongly criticized deferred dividend policies.
NML dropped these policies before that investigation was underway, but the Wisconsin legislature echoed the New York findings. Lastly, the Armstrong investigation was concerned that the sales of the New York companies were too large to be absorbed by the mortgage market.
On the other hand, the Wisconsin legislature found NML's conservative financial policies to be excellent. What was disappointing to the legislature was the relatively small portion of the company's portfolio invested in its home state. The largest state for investment was Illinois, where the growing Chicago real estate market absorbed over a third of the company's loans until , and a quarter of the loans thereafter.
The Wisconsin investigation led to an attempt to legislate the principle of trusteeship that NML tried to follow. Many of the unworkable laws were repealed or amended in NML came through this difficult period relatively unscathed because of the three principles its president, Henry Palmer, instilled into the corporate character: conservative underwriting standards, simplicity of operation, and conservative investments. When Palmer stepped down in , he had established a managerial succession that made George C.
Markham the obvious choice. In the wake of the Armstrong investigation, insurance markets began to change. Group insurance and disability and double indemnity clauses were started at this time, but NML's management refused to adopt any of these innovations. Markham's administration was not market-oriented; it was preoccupied with investment problems.
Many disability clauses were later proved unsound. In , the company took the lead in the new field of business life insurance for partners and for key personnel. Nevertheless, agent dissatisfaction developed because the company would not enter new areas such as disability and group insurance. NML found itself developing into a specialty company by limiting its policies to individual life insurance.
It had outgrown several offices since then, but its new ones were never more than a block away. In , it purchased a city block at the east end of Wisconsin, four blocks away. True to its conservatism, NML built a "Roman temple" in an age of skyscrapers. When the new building was occupied in , the company became more compartmentalized. The sense of personalism that had characterized the days when executive and clerk worked side-by-side were gone.
The fact that the new cafeteria offered free lunch on a daily basis was little compensation. During World War I, NML followed the practice of the insurance industry in adding a "war-risk" clause to policies, resulting in increased premium costs for servicemen.
At the same time, the federal government provided life insurance policies to men in service. William D. Van Dyke, whose father had been president in the s, replaced Markham in The company boosted its sales advertising the speedy settlement. Gurda, The Quiet Company , This building is currently the Hilton Garden Inn.
Gurda, The Quiet Company , , 19, Gurda, The Quiet Company , , , 20, For Further Reading Gurda, John. View Location on Map.
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