1907
The company begins offering automobile coverages. In 1907, Aetna created a casualty subsidiary — the forerunner of Aetna Casualty and Surety — to handle (among other things) automobile property coverages. Soon after, Aetna began aggressively developing related lines such as collision and damage.
1908
Aetna hires its first home office female employee, Julia Kinghorn, a telephone switchboard operator. Today, women comprise more than two-thirds of the total employee population, and their interests have shaped corporate culture in ways unimagined in 1908.
1910
Aetna begins using Hollerith (keypunch) machines for tabulating; 35 women are hired to input mortality statistics using the new technology, becoming the company's first female home office clerks. E.E. Cammack, an innovative Englishman, was responsible for introducing the Hollerith data processing technology to Aetna in 1910 — one of the earliest examples of the company's willingness to utilize technology in order to improve efficiency.
1911
The company begins its first national advertising campaign.
Aetna forms a bond department to sell fidelity and surety coverages.
1912
Aetna introduces the industry's first combination automobile policy, combining several coverages into one contract. One year later the company formed its second affiliate, the Automobile Insurance Company, to write fire insurance on cars. This new affiliate soon expanded its lines to include windstorm, tornado, leasehold, and ocean and inland marine insurance.
Several Aetna insureds lose their lives on the Titanic.
1913
Aetna forms a Group department to sell group life insurance, becoming one of the first insurers to write group coverages for businesses. The line became the foundation upon which Aetna built its current health care business. The 1900s brought into the public consciousness the notion that employers were responsible for the safety of their workers. As a consequence, the emergence of a market for employer liability insurance prompted Aetna to enter the fray. Over the years the company added group accident (1914), group disability (1919) and group medical (1936) to its original group life portfolio.
1916
Bulkeley outfits a Connecticut battalion to patrol the Mexican border.
1917
The United States enters World War I. During World War I, Aetna uses its financial strength to provide the huge amounts of insurance needed to bond contractors involved in government construction. The company also helps fund the country's war effort by purchasing and selling millions of dollars of Liberty Bonds. As part of this effort, the company creates a department to sell and process war bond subscriptions.
1919
Aetna begins offering group disability policies.
1921
Aetna appoints E.E. Cammack to run the Group department, a job he performed so ably that although not a founder, he became known as "the Father of the Group department." By the time he retired in 1956, Cammack had been Aetna's chief actuary for more than 30 years, a senior officer in the casualty affiliates since 1927, and a member of the board of directors of three of the four Aetna companies.
1922
Morgan G. Bulkeley dies after 43 years as Aetna president. He is replaced by his nephew, Morgan B. Brainard. Under Bulkeley’s guidance, Aetna had undergone a period of explosive growth. Its assets increased from $25.7 million in 1879 to $207 million, and premium income rose more than twenty-fold. His successor, Morgan B. Brainard, sought to improve upon what had been built by ensuring that Aetna's resources were utilized efficiently. Under Brainard, Aetna revamped its agency system and rewrote its policies in simpler language and more inclusive underwriting standards.
The company advertises on radio for the first time.
1924
Aetna participates in the first Greater Hartford Community Chest fund-raising drive, firmly anchoring Aetna’s long tradition of giving.
1926
Aetna appoints its first female officer, Dr. Marion Bills. Dr. Bills completely revamped the company's personnel policies within two years. She also introduced the Bonus Plan, a piecework sliding pay scale that was primarily applied to data processing departments.
An Aetna casualty affiliate nearly goes bankrupt. The Automobile Insurance Company had contributed to the spectacular growth of Aetna during the early years of Brainard's tenure, with premium income almost tripling from $11 million in 1922 to $30 million in 1924. By 1926, it is clear that the organization is undercapitalized, and that bankruptcy is a real possibility. Brainard moves quickly by removing the top management of the company and replacing them with a group led by Cammack, and recapitalizing the organization with Aetna Life money so that its financial stability could be restored. The moves work — within two years the company is again in the black, albeit on a much less ambitious scale.
Aetna confronts a farm mortgage crisis by entering farm management business. Aetna had been investing in this field since 1867. By the turn of the century, over 40 percent of company assets were in farm mortgages. But the post-war agricultural sector collapsed, and land values plummeted. Aetna was forced reluctantly to foreclose on an increasing number of mortgages. Rather than sell at a big loss, Aetna takes the aggressive step of entering the farm management business, an innovative approach for an insurer. The company would fix up the properties, lease them to tenants, and wait until prices rose to a more acceptable level before selling. Due to the extended economic downturn caused by the Depression, the company ended up managing these properties far longer than it had anticipated. Aetna eventually withdrew from the farm mortgage field in 1947, after 80 years in the business.
1929
The stock market crash kicks off the Great Depression. Aetna's fortunes are not as devastated as one might have expected from a company so heavily involved in investments. Only about 12 percent of the company's assets are in common stock, and almost half of that was in its own companies. The inherent strength of the Aetna companies enable them to survive the 1930s. Aetna manages the crisis by withholding dividend payments to shareholders from late 1932 to early 1934, reducing the workforce through attrition and cutting salaries by 10 percent. Aetna employees survive the Depression in relatively good shape; there were no layoffs, and the companywide pay cut, already less than the national average of 25 percent, was more than offset by a deflationary cycle that increased purchasing power.
Construction begins on the current home office, at 151 Farmington Ave. At the time of its completion in late 1930, the structure is the largest colonial-style building in the world and is the largest office building in Connecticut.
1930
Aetna becomes the first multiple line insurer in America to pay out $1 billion in claims.
Aetna enters the pension business.
1931
The Aetna Life girls’ basketball team appears on national newsreel features.
The company bonds the construction of the Hoover Dam.
1932
Aetna bonds the construction of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
1936
Aetna begins offering group health policies.
1940
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