Sentry Insurance

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Sentry Insurance
Mutual
Industry Insurance & Finance
Founded 1904
Headquarters Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
Key people
 McPartland, Pete, President & CEO[1]
Number of employees
 4,500
Website www.Sentry.com

Sentry Insurance is a mutual insurance company specializing in business insurance. The company’s home office is in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where about half the company’s approximately 4,500 employees are located. Sentry offers property and casualty insurance, workers' compensation, life insurance, and other business insurance, as well as non-insurance products like annuities and retirement programs. Sentry provides specialized insurance programs to customers in specific industries as well as very large companies with complex risk.[2][3][4]

Sentry is one of the nation’s largest mutual insurance companies. As of December 31, 2014, the company has assets of more than $14 billion and a policyholder surplus of over $4.1 billion. Sentry was rated A+ by A.M. Best, the insurance industry’s leading rating authority, as of 2015. In 2015, Sentry Insurance was ranked 799th on the Fortune 1000 list of companies.[5][6][7]

History

File:Hardware Mutual Insurance Company Building.jpg
The Hardware Mutual Insurance Companies Building in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Sentry Insurance was founded in 1904 by members of the Wisconsin Retail Hardware Association, now the Midwest Hardware Association, to provide insurance for its members in the hardware industry. Its headquarters for many years was the Hardware Mutual Insurance Companies Building, built in 1922 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Though supplanted by a new headquarters in 1977,[8] the historic building is still in use by the company today.

The company also owns its own golf course, SentryWorld, which opened in 1982.[9] Designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., it is regarded as a "destination golf course".[9][10]

  • In 2015, Sentry entered an affiliation agreement with Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits, adding a new line of business specializing in providing insurance and benefit programs to retail florists and related companies.[11]
  • In 2014, Sentry purchased Anchor Management General Agency, establishing entry into the management general agency distribution model.[12]
  • Also in 2014, Sentry began supplying its transportation clients with DriveCam in-car cameras.[13]
  • In 2013, Sentry released a mobile version of its risk management portal.[14]
  • In March, 2012, Sentry Insurance named Pete McPartland CEO. He previously had served as president and chief operating officer.[15] In September, 2012, Sentry Insurance laid off 27 office workers and 144 home-based agents as it restructured its strategy for selling personal line policies. It launched a new independent agency, Point Insurance, to serve policyholders in central Wisconsin and offer Sentry products as well as those of other companies. The company subsequently received a 2013 Stakeholder Team Accomplishment Recognition™ (STAR) award from Demotech, Inc. for its operating results in 2012. The national award was based upon multiple financial measures; Demotech reviewed 2,736 property and casualty carriers, and Sentry was one of two companies in the Near National company classification to receive its top rating.[16][17][18]

The Sentry logo is based on this statue of Captain John Parker in Lexington, Massachusetts[19]

Sentry's logo is the "Minuteman Statue," a sculpture of Capt. John Parker, located in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Operations

As of December 31, 2013, Sentry had assets of $13.2 billion[1] and a policyholder surplus of $4.1 billion.[1] The Sentry Group of Companies serves more than 1.1 million policyholders. Sentry Insurance was ranked 777th on the 2014 Fortune 1000 list of companies.[20] The company offers life, group health, auto, and other property/casualty lines. Sentry's property and casualty companies are rated A+ by A. M. Best.[21] The Sentry group of companies includes Dairyland, Peak Property and Casualty, Viking Insurance Company of Wisconsin, and about a dozen others.[22][23][24][25]

Corporate Philanthropy

Sentry Insurance supports a variety of nonprofits and educational institutions, both through employee donations and volunteerism, and through its Sentry Foundation.

Employee initiatives

Employees in the headquarters and other offices in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, have raised funds and volunteered for a number of local nonprofits. Highlights of their activities include raising the bulk of a $1 million donation for a United Way campaign in Portage County (location of Stevens Point) in 2015 and collecting and donating more than 2,600 food and household items to local food pantries in December 2015. [26][27][28]

Sentry Insurance Foundation

The Sentry Insurance Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was established in 1995. It disbursed $3.7 million in grants in 2014. The foundation made grants of more than $7 million in technology to classrooms in Portage County, Wisconsin, between 2008 and 2015. It awarded a $4 million dollar grant to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2016 to fund a data analytics major.[29][30][31]

Litigation

  • 2016: In 2013, a Sentry insurance fraud investigation led to criminal charges against three people (from Wisconsin or Illinois) in Iowa. They were charged in Iowa with operating a car insurance fraud ring in Illinois after calling a Sentry call center in Davenport, Iowa. The defendants fought extradition to Iowa to face the charges. In 2016, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that they could be tried in Iowa. The high court also reinstated several charges that had been thrown out by a lower court.[32]
  • In 2015, Sentry sued The Dun & Bradstreet Corp. in federal court, arguing that it wasn’t obligated to defend and indemnify the company in underlying complaints alleging that it wrongfully exploited information on its credit reports to sell a financial report product. The company said it isn’t obligated to defend or indemnify D&B in the underlying suits since those claims constitute professional services.[33]
  • In May, 2011, Sentry sued Gene's Furnace Shop after a policy holder sustained a house fire. Sentry paid out $350,000 to their client but sued Gene's Furnace Shop to recover their money, after it was determined that Gene's Furnace allegedly installed the flue pipe in an unsafe manner.[34]
  • In 2007, Sentry Insurance sued an 81-year-old woman from Brookfield, WI. A member of a meal-delivery team fell on ice in the 81-year-old's driveway. The lawsuit was filed three years after the incident. The director of senior services for Waukesha County indicated that they are very concerned that the lawsuit could cause the elderly to cancel needed services out of fear. Many have questioned how an insurance company could decide to provide Workers Compensation insurance to a "Meals on Wheels" company, knowing ahead of time that the company exists to help elderly that are too frail to shop during the winter and then sue the elderly for not getting out of their home to shovel their driveway.[35][36][37]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/schmeeckle/Pages/about/history.aspx
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/179333261.html
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2012/03/01/237677.htm
  16. ↑ http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2012/09/09/262357.htm
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ http://madisonrecord.com/issues/307-insurance/235661-sentry-insurance-sues-to-recover-paid-fire-claim
  35. ↑ http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/29226334.html
  36. ↑ https://besteverawards.wordpress.com/tag/lawsuits/
  37. ↑ http://wisconsinpersonalinjurylawyers.blogspot.com/2007/02/insurer-sues-81-year-old-woman-for.html

External links

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