American International Group

AIG has the highest ratings and is one of the world's most innovative companies, well positioned to capitalize on opportunities on behalf of its clients throughout the global marketplace. While AIG's products and services have changed over the years with the needs of its customers, the AIG core values of integrity, quality service, financial strength and responsive leadership will never change. Cornelius Vander Starr forms American Asiatic Underwriters, a two-clerk insurance agency in Shanghai, China. Starr opens a New York office under the name American International Underwriters. With much of the world on the brink of war, Starr moves his headquarters from Shanghai to New York. Starr begins uniting his fragmented network of insurance companies by forming two Bermuda-based entities: American International Underwriters Overseas, Ltd. and American International Reinsurance Company, Inc. (AIRCO). Following the communist takeover of China, Starr moves his regional headquarters to Hong Kong. 1960s:Several acquisitions are completed, including National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire Insurance Company. As part of a major reorganization, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is formed to become the holding company for the various insurance companies; Maurice R. Greenberg becomes president and CEO of AIG. AIG is organized into four broad categories: the foreign general insurance division, the brokerage division of domestic general insurance, the agency division of domestic general insurance, and a life insurance division. The Financial Services Group is formed, consolidating the firm's burgeoning financial services operations. SunAmerica Inc., a major player in annuities and mutual funds, is acquired for $18.3 billion. American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a holding company for a network of subsidiaries primarily engaged in insurance and insurance-related activities, including property, casualty, life, financial services, retirement savings products, asset management, and aircraft leasing. AIG operates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, and its combined revenues make it the largest U.S.-based international insurance organization and one of the largest insurance firms in the world. AIG is the leading underwriter of commercial and industrial insurance in the United States and holds the number two position in the U.S. life insurance sector. The corporation, whose earliest roots were in Asia, has had an active history of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations, and under the renowned stewardship of Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg from the late 1960s into the early 21st century the company has grown into a global insurance giant. In 1919 a 27-year-old U.S. businessman, Cornelius Vander Starr, opened a two-room, two-clerk insurance agency in Shanghai, China, and named it American Asiatic Underwriters (AAU). AAU, which later became part of American International Underwriters (AIU), initially served as an underwriter for insurance companies that had established branches in Shanghai. During a trip to New York in 1921 Starr added representation of other U.S. companies to his operations, including the Globe & Rutgers Company. Later that decade Starr brought representation of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, company, National Union Fire Insurance, into his fold. Starr's next quest was to gain general life insurance agency powers, but he found no U.S. companies willing to assume the risk because there were no life-expectancy statistics available for the Chinese population. In 1921 Starr overcame this obstacle by forming his own company, Asia Life Insurance Company (ALICO). ALICO's most popular product was a 20-year endowment policy, with rates established on the basis of Starr's personal observation that in general Chinese enjoyed longer life expectancies than their Western counterparts. In 1926 Starr opened a New York office under the name American International Underwriter