Fidelity & Guaranty Life

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Fidelity and Guaranty Life Insurance Company provides annuities and life insurance for over 700,000 policyholders across the United States. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in Des Moines, Iowa. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Harbinger Group prior to a partial initial public offering in 2013.

In November 2015, Fidelity announced an agreement to sell the company to the Chinese insurance firm Anbang Insurance for a fee of around $1.57 billion.

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History

The company was incorporated in 1959 under the laws of Maryland and commenced business in 1960. The company was primarily formed to write individual life insurance and annuity products.

Until June 1, 1995, the company was a wholly owned subsidiary of United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company ("USF&G Company"), a Maryland-domiciled property and casualty insurer. USF&G Corporation, a Maryland-domiciled insurance holding company, was the company's ultimate controlling entity.

Effective June 1, 1995, with the approval of the Maryland Insurance Administration, USF&G Company declared a dividend payable to USF&G Corporation consisting of all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of the company. As a result, the company became a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of USF&G Corporation. In 1996, then-CEO Norman Blake publicly discussed the possibility of selling the life insurance company as part of plan to grow the international operations of the property & casualty business. By 1997, Blake told shareholders that several large carriers had approached management to purchase the entire organization.

On January 20, 1998, St. Paul announced that it would acquire USF&G for $2.8 billion and merge both entities into a single organization. On April 24, 1998, as a result of the merger of its parent, USF&G Corporation, with The St. Paul Companies, Inc. (St. Paul Travelers), an insurance holding company incorporated in the state of Minnesota, the company became an indirect subsidiary of St. Paul Companies, Inc.

Effective January 1, 1999, under a plan of merger, with the approval of the Maryland Insurance Administration, the company's ultimate parent, USF&G Corporation, merged with St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (Fire & Marine), a Minnesota corporation. As a result of this merger, the company became a direct wholly owned subsidiary of Fire & Marine with St. Paul as its ultimate controlling entity.

On September 18, 2001, the Company was acquired by Old Mutual plc ("Old Mutual"), a London based financial services company, which was approved by the Maryland Insurance Administration on September 21, 2001. As a result of the acquisition, the Company became a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc. ("OMUSLH"), a Delaware holding company which is ultimately owned by Old Mutual. The listed purchase price was $635 million USD.

On December 31, 2002, the Maryland Insurance Administration approved a reorganization plan within the Old Mutual plc holding company system. Old Mutual plc created a new Texas-domiciled life insurance company, Omnia Life Insurance Company, Inc., ("Omnia"), and all of the outstanding common stock of the Company was contributed to Omnia by the Company's parent, OMULSH. As a result of the reorganization, the Company became a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Omnia.

Effective January 1, 2007, the company's board of directors approved a resolution to amend the company's charter to change its name to OM Financial Life Insurance Company. This name change was submitted and approved by the State of Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation and the Administration, effective January 1, 2007.

On January 16, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission("SEC") issued Rule 151A claiming indexed annuities should be regulated as securities and should only be sold by registered representatives. A lawsuit was filed on the same day challenging the SEC's ability to regulate fixed indexed annuities. Legislation was also introduced in Congress to exempt these annuities from securities regulation. Management of OM Financial Life Insurance actively participated in industry opposition to the proposal. On July 13, 2010, The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated Rule 151A. On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed HR 4173 (Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) which contained a last minute amendment by Senator Harkin ("Harkin Amendment") which exempted fixed index annuities from regulation by the SEC and left these products to be regulated by the state insurance departments.

In early 2010, reports surfaced that Old Mutual had placed the U.S. insurance operations for sale. On April 6, 2011, Old Mutual announced the completion of sale of its life and annuity business to the Harbinger Group. Harbinger expressed its intention to use cash flow from the company to fund future acquisitions for the conglomerate. Harbinger appointed Lee Launer, a former senior executive of MetLife to run the company as CEO.

At that time, "OM Financial Life Insurance Company" changed its name back to "Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company".

In August, 2013, Fidelity & Guaranty Life filed Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expressing its intention to complete an initial public equity offering.

The company currently writes various types of fixed annuities and life insurance products. Currently, the largest product line is fixed indexed annuity (FIA). In calendar year 2012, FIAs generated approximately 95% of total sales. See Annuity (US financial products) and Indexed annuity for description of these products. The company's National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) number is 63274.

In 2013, the company announced a move of its headquarters to Des Moines, Iowa, citing a lower cost of business and a desire to operate under a similar regulator as rival companies. The company launched an initial public offering in late 2013 In October, 2014, the company hired Chris Littlefield, former CEO of Aviva USA, as President of the company. The company subsequently appointed him CEO in April, 2014.

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Business

Policies are offered in every state and the District of Columbia; however, in New York, products are offered through a wholly owned subsidiary, Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company of New York.

In 2012, the majority of the company's direct premiums and annuity consideration business was written in the states of California (13.15%), Georgia (10.89%), Texas (8.81%), Florida (8.74%), Pennsylvania (6.07%), Michigan (5.62%), Arizona (5.41%), New Jersey (3.91%), Ohio (3.45%), Illinois (3.36%), North Carolina (3.03%), Missouri (1.97%), Tennessee (1.85%), Wisconsin (1.77%), and Indiana (1.61%). Total writings of $2,199,063,661 from these 15 states account for 79.6% of the total direct premiums and annuity consideration business written during 2012.

The company focuses on the sale of individual life insurance products and annuities, which include deferred annuities (fixed indexed and fixed rate annuities) and immediate annuities primarily sold through independent insurance marketing organizations (IMOs) that in turn represent independent agents. The major categories of direct premiums and annuity considerations written during 2012 were individual annuities (78.5%) and universal life insurance (21.4%).

From a statutory reporting perspective, the total adjusted statutory capital of Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company was $949 million and $870 million at December 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively. Fidelity & Guaranty Life had statutory net income of $102 million and statutory net income of $110 million for the years ended December 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively. As of December 31, 2012, the company had more than $85 billion of insurance in force with over $16 billion in assets . The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the investment firm Harbinger Group.

A.M. Best rates the company and its subsidiaries in the 'Very Good' category of B++; Fitch Ratings maintains a BBB rating; and Moody's Investors Service holds the company at a Ba1 (adequate) position, and Standard & Poor's rates the company at BBB-.