navigation search colonial life type subsidiary industry insurance founded 1939 founder edwin f. averyt headquarters columbia south carolina area served united states key people timothy g. arnold president and ceo products personal insurance products accident insurance cancer insurance critical illness insurance dental insurance disability insurance life insurance supplemental health insurance parent unum nyse unm website coloniallife.com colonial life & accident insurance company is an american insurance company based in columbia south carolina . 1 colonial life offers disability accident life cancer critical illness and hospital confinement insurance plans in 49 states . 2 colonial life was founded in 1939 by edwin averyt and became a wholly owned subsidiary of unum in 1993 . 2 3 tim arnold has served as colonial life s chief executive since january 2015 . 4 contents 1 history 2 operations 3 see also 4 references history edit colonial life s history traces back to 1929 when company founder edwin averyt was working as a bond salesman in birmingham alabama and met with a former university of alabama classmate who was successful at selling individual accident insurance policies . 5 averyt later moved to south carolina to become the regional manager of a firm that sold savings bonds united securities company of kansas city missouri . 6 in 1937 he earned a 2 000 commission . 5 he raised an additional 3 000 from investors and founded mutual accident company the same year . 6 mutual accident company originally sold 1 000 accident policies for 3 annually ; policies that were very similar to the policies sold by averyt s former classmate . 5 mutual accident company was converted to a stockholder company in 1939 and renamed colonial life & accident insurance company . 6 7 edwin averyt served as company chief executive until 1970 when failing health forced his retirement . 6 his son gayle replaced averyt as chief executive . 5 colonial life began offering accident and cancer insurance policies to employees using pre tax dollars in 1985 . 5 these policies accounted for half of all new policies issued by the company by 1990 . 5 in 1989 colonial life created a holding company colonial companies inc. 8 colonial life became a wholly owned subsidiary of colonial companies . 8 in march 1991 stephen g. hall was named chief executive of colonial life . 9 hall had served as company president since 1986 . 9 gayle averyt retained chairmanship of the company . 9 hall resigned from colonial life in february 1992 and was replaced by frank smith . 10 unum acquired colonial life in 1993 for 571 million . 11 james orr unum s chief executive assumed the position of colonial life chief executive with the merger . 11 in 2003 colonial became the named sponsor of the university of south carolina s basketball arena . 12 the company agreed to pay 5.5 million over 12 years for the name rights to colonial life arena . 12 randall horn became colonial life president and chief executive officer in 2004 . 13 he replaced jean duke . 13 in july 2014 timothy g. arnold became the company s president . he assumed the role of chief executive in early 2015 . 14 in 2014 colonial life completed a habitat for humanity building project during its 75th anniversary . 15 16 operations edit colonial life sells voluntary insurance products for employees . 17 18 the company issues insurance policies in the disability accident life critical illness hospital confinement and cancer segments . 17 its products are marketed by independent insurance agents and brokers . 4 the company is headquartered in columbia south carolina . 6 colonial life is wholly owned by unum but operates as an independent subsidiary . 4 colonial life is one of unum s three major business segments and accounted for 15 % of unum s premium income for the year 2012 . 4 tim arnold is colonial life s chief executive . 4 see also edit colonial life arena list of united states insurance companies references edit unum group . the new york times . retrieved 30 march 2014 . a b daniel f. cuff . president leaves colonial life in rift . the new york times . retrieved 30 march 2014 . unum to buy colonial in 570 million stock deal . the new york times . 5 december 1992 . retrieved 30 march 2014 . a b c d e united states securities and exchange commission 10 k form unum group . united states securities and exchange commission . retrieved 30 march 2014 . a b c d e f chithelen i. 11 november 1991 . policies priced for profit . forbes . a b c d e anne creed . insurance town . columbia metropolitan . retrieved 30 march 2014 . jeff wilkinson . columbia a giant of insurance . the state . archived from the original on june 16 2012 . retrieved 30 march 2014 . a b colonial life holders ok holding company . reuters news . 16 november 1989 . a b c who s news brief colonial companies inc. . the wall street journal europe . 5 march 1991 . colonial cos. names new president . reuters news . 27 february 1992 . a b unum to acquire colonial cos. in 570 million merger . reuters news . 4 december 1992 . a b jacob jordan 7 october 2003 . usc arena to be renamed colonial center . associated press newswires . a b colonial names new chief . associated press newswires . colonial life ceo horn to retire arnold to take over . columbia regional business report . 20 may 2014 . retrieved 29 august 2014 . roddie burris april 19 2014 . colonial life has built brand on trust . the state . retrieved may 1 2014 . colonial life celebrates 75 years of protecting america s workers . the wall street journal . april 17 2014 . retrieved may 1 2014 . a b colonial life & accident insurance company . hoovers . retrieved 30 march 2014 . cyril tuohy . colonial life launches new voluntary group product . insurance news net . retrieved 30 march 2014 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title colonial life % 26 accident insurance company & oldid 712759368 categories insurance companies of the united statescompanies established in 1937companies based in columbia south carolinalife insurance companies navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 march 2016 at 23 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia 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