NU Online News Service, Nov. 21, 2003, 10:10 a.m. ? Hartford, once widely called the capital of the U.S. insurance industry, will soon be home to only two major insurers, a report in today’s New York Times notes.
The report follows the announcement this week that Travelers Property Casualty Corporation and the St. Paul Companies will merge. Travelers’ operations will be moved to Minnesota within two years, leaving only the Phoenix Companies and the Hartford Financial Services Group, both life insurance carriers, with headquarters in Hartford.
Aetna has kept its health care division in Hartford but sold its financial services division to ING Groep, the Netherlands, in 2000. Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company merged with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1996, moving its headquarters to Springfield, Mass.
Another major insurer in the city, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, became the Cigna Corporation when it merged with the INA in 1983 and relocated to Philadelphia, the Times notes in a report filed by Stacey Stowe.