Thomas E. Leavey – an American businessman born in rural California, together with John C. Tyler who also grew up in a rural area of South Dakota, founded the Farmers Automobile Inter-Insurance Exchange in Los Angeles, CA in 1928.
Tyler was the son of an insurance salesman, and Leavey had knowledge of farmers and ranchers needs by having worked for the Federal Farm Loan Bureau.
They believed that farmers and ranchers were safer risks than urbanites and that their auto insurance needs weren’t being met by the insurance salesmen who hardly ever traveled the ‘back roads’.
Through the years they added several other lines of insurance, and acquired smaller competitors.
In 1988 Farmers Insurance Group was acquired by BATUS and finally in 1998 they merged with the Zurich Financial Services Group with headquarters in Zurich Switzerland.
Although parented by Zurich, Farmers still trades under their name and maintains headquarters in Los Angeles.
This multi facetted company offers a multitude of insurance and financial services, including auto insurance.
Marketed in all states, they offer the following discounts:
- Multiple policies
- Senior Citizen
- Safe driving record
- Safety features of your car.
Multiple, large scale disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, brush fires, etc., have placed severe financial burdens of Farmers over the many years of business, but especially in the past 20 years.
When your exposure is so vast, as is the case with Farmers, the risk of claims is proportionate.
While many of their clients have continually carried their product, many others have been dissatisfied with the manner in which their claims were handled – so law suits were brought against the company.
Financially stable, still one of the largest and most stable insurance companies around.
In 2000 they acquired Foremost Insurance and most recently (2009) they bought 21st Century.