NU Online News Service, Oct. 15, 5:25 p.m. – Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, N.J., says the New Jersey commissioner of banking and insurance has approved its demutualize plan.
Prudential policyholders voted to approve the demutualization plan in July.
"We're gratified with the commissioner's action today," Mark Grier, the Prudential executive vice president in charge of the demutualization effort, said today in a statement. "This approval affirms the overwhelming support we received from our policyholders in July."
Prudential started out as a stock company owned by public investors, but it began pulling back from shareholder ownership around the turn of the century, in part as a result of a controversy about whether public shareholders had the long-term outlook necessary to serve as owners of an insurance company.