company . for the british company see prudential plc. for places named after the company see prudential disambiguation . prudential financial inc. newark skyline with the prudential financial headquarters at right . trading name the prudential insurance company of america type public traded as nyse pru s & p 500 component industry financial services genre financial founded 1875 ; 141 years ago 1875 newark new jersey u.s. founder john f. dryden headquarters prudential plaza newark new jersey u.s. area served nationwide key people john strangfeld chairman and ceo mark grier vice chairman products life insurance mutual funds retirement annuity real estate revenue us 54.161 billion 1 2014 operating income us 1.759 billion 1 2014 net income us 1.381 billion 1 2014 total assets us 766.655 billion 1 2014 total equity us 41.77 billion 1 2014 number of employees 48 331 1 2014 website www.prudential.com prudential financial inc. is an american fortune global 500 and fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance investment management and other financial products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the united states and in over 30 other countries . principal products and services provided include life insurance annuities mutual funds pension and retirement related investments administration and asset management securities brokerage services and commercial and residential real estate in many states of the u.s. it provides these products and services to individual and institutional customers through distribution networks in the financial services industry . prudential has operations in the united states asia europe and latin america and has organized its principal operations into the financial services businesses and the closed block business . prudential is composed of hundreds of subsidiaries and holds more than 2 trillion of life insurance . 2 the company uses the rock of gibraltar as its logo . contents 1 logo 2 history 3 acquisitions and divestitures 4 investor fraud 5 class action lawsuit over sales practices 6 us military life insurance lawsuit 7 ratings awards and the prudential foundation 8 see also 9 references 10 external links logo edit the use of prudential s logo the rock of gibraltar began after an advertising agent passed laurel hill a volcanic neck in secaucus new jersey on a train in the 1890s . 3 the related slogans get a piece of the rock and strength of gibraltar are also still quite widely associated with prudential 4 though current advertising uses neither of these . in 1985 the rock of gilbraltar image was changed to a lined 2d plainer version for the logo but by 1989 the original illustration of the rock of gilbraltar returned . the type was designed by doyald young and based on the century schoolbook typeface . 5 history edit started in newark new jersey in 1875 prudential financial was originally called the widows and orphans friendly society and then the prudential friendly society and was founded by john f. dryden who later became a u.s. senator . it sold one product in the beginning burial insurance . dryden was president of prudential until 1912 . he was succeeded by his son forrest f. dryden who was the president until 1922 . 6 old advert of the prudential insurance co. of america 1909 . a history of the prudential insurance company of america up to about 1975 is the topic of the book three cents a week referring to the premium paid by early policyholders . at the turn of the 20th century prudential and other large insurers reaped the bulk of their profits from industrial life insurance or insurance sold by solicitors house to house in poor urban areas . 7 for their insurance industrial workers paid double what others paid for ordinary life insurance and due to high lapse rates as few as 1 in 12 policies reached maturity . 8 prominent lawyer and future u.s. supreme court justice louis brandeis helped pass a 1907 massachusetts law to protect workers by allowing savings banks to sell life insurance at lower rates . 9 prudential logo from 1948 . homeland security secured the prudential headquarters in august 2004 . prudential has evolved from a mutual insurance company owned by its policyholders to a joint stock company as it was prior to 1915 10 . it is now traded on the new york stock exchange under the symbol pru . the prudential stock was issued and started trading on the new york stock exchange on december 13 2001 . on october 16 2007 the fox business channel picked prudential as part of its fox50 index . on august 1 2004 the u.s. office of homeland security announced the discovery of terrorist threats against the prudential headquarters in newark new jersey prompting large scale security measures such as concrete barriers and internal security changes such as x ray machines . 11 in the same year a joint venture is formed between prudential financial and china everbright limited . 12 on august 28 2006 federal and state securities regulators and the department of justice announced parallel settlements and a total of 600 million in monetary sanctions against prudential securities inc. now known as prudential equity group for misconduct relating to improper market timing . 13 on november 28 2007 prudential financial board of directors elected a new ceo john r. strangfeld to replace retiring arthur f. ryan . 14 acquisitions and divestitures edit in 1981 the company acquired bache & co. a stock brokerage service that operated as a wholly owned subsidiary until 2003 when wachovia and prudential combined their retail brokerage operations into wachovia securities with prudential a minority stake holder . 15 16 in 1999 prudential sold its healthcare division prudential healthcare to aetna for 1 billion . on may 1 2003 prudential formalized the acquisition of american skandia the largest distributor of variable annuities through independent financial professionals in the united states . the ceo of american skandia wade dokken partnered with goldman sachs and sold the division to prudential for 1.2 billion . 17 the combination of american skandia variable annuities and prudential fixed annuities was part of prudential s strategy to acquire complementary businesses that help meet retirement goals . in april 2004 the company acquired the retirement business of cigna corporation . in late 2009 prudential sold its minority stake in wachovia securities financial holdings llc to wells fargo & co. 18 in 2011 prudential sold prudential bache commodities llc to jefferies . in february 2011 the company acquired aig edison and aig star both in japan from american international group inc aig for a total of 4.8 billion . 19 this acquisition bolstered prudential s operations in asia while giving cash to aig to pay back the federal government from its bailout in 2008 . in january 2013 the company acquired the individual life insurance business from the hartford for 615 million in cash . the acquisition includes 700 000 in force life insurance policies with a face amount of approximately 135 billion . this move by prudential not only brought over additional life insurance revenue it brought in new talent that the u.s. life insurance division needed for innovation . 20 as prudential s variable annuity business continues to grow the company needs to continue to grow its life insurance business to provide a natural hedge against unforeseen mortality risk . investor fraud edit during the 1980s and 1990s prudential securities incorporated psi formerly a division of prudential financial was investigated by the securities and exchange commission sec for suspected fraud . 21 during the investigation it was found that psi had defrauded investors of close to 8 billion the largest fraud found by the sec in us history to that point . 22 the sec charged that prudential allowed rogue executives to cheat customers on a large scale and blithely ignored a 1986 sec order to overhaul its internal enforcement of securities laws . 23 in all some 400 000 individual investors lost money on the deals . 22 in 1993 prudential financial eventually settled with investors for 330 million . 23 prudential said it would repay customers across the u.s. who lost money on the company s limited partnerships in the 1980s . in addition the firm was required to pay another 41 million in fines . 22 the settlement also resolved investigations of the firm by the national association of securities dealers and 49 states including california where 52 000 investors lost money in prudential limited partnerships . 22 23 further investigation was conducted by the sec into the executives of the company to determine the extent of the fraud . 24 class action lawsuit over sales practices edit in 1997 prudential settled a class action lawsuit by millions of its customers who had been sold unnecessary life insurance by prudential agents over a 13 year period ending in 1995 . the settlement called for prudential to repay an estimated 2 billion to customers through direct refunds and enhancements to existing policies . the settlement had been the subject of extensive negotiations involving not only prudential and its customers but also insurance regulators in 30 states . prudential had agreed in early 1997 to pay a fine of 35 million to settle state allegations of deceptive sales practices . prudential acknowledged that for more than a decade its agents had improperly persuaded customers to cash in old policies and purchase new ones so that the agents could generate additional sales commissions . 25 us military life insurance lawsuit edit in 2010 various media outlets noted allegations that the prudential life insurance company was manipulating the payout of life insurance benefits due to the families of american soldiers in order to gain extra profits . the company provided life insurance to people in the armed forces under a government contract . rather than paying the full amount due to the families at once the company would instead deposit the funds into a prudential corporate account . these accounts are referred to as retained asset accounts and are essentially an i.o.u. from the company to the payee in many cases a fallen service members family . while in early 2010 prudential was making profits of up to 4.2 % in its general account they paid out 0.5 % interest in these non fdic insured alliance accounts . 26 27 in some cases when families requested to be sent a full payout in the form of a check the family was sent a checkbook rather than the amount due . 26 it is not clear if the practice was in violation of law or the contract . in august 2010 the company was sued by a number of the bereaved families . 28 the company s response included an open letter to the military community in which it addressed what it characterized as misinformation about the nature of the accounts . 29 30 military times noted that prior lawsuits against insurance companies pertaining to the use of retained asset accounts have been dismissed in federal courts without action . 29 ratings awards and the prudential foundation edit prudential has received a 100 % rating on the corporate equality index released by the human rights campaign every year since 2003 the second year of the report . in addition the company is in the hall of fame of working mothers magazine among other companies that have made their 100 best companies for working mothers list for 15 or more years . 31 it is still achieving that list as of 2013 . 32 according to business week s the best places to launch a career 2008 prudential insurance was ranked 59 out of 119 companies on the list . 33 in 2007 the prudential foundation provided over 450 000 in prudential cares volunteer grants to 444 nonprofit organizations worldwide . the prudential cares volunteer grants program recognizes individual and team volunteers based on a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service per individual . grants range from 250 to 5 000 for