CIGNA Corporation History

Company Perspectives:

At CIGNA, we intend to be the best at helping our customers enhance and extend their lives and protect their financial security. Satisfying customers is the key to meeting employee needs and shareholder expectations, and will enable CIGNA to build on our reputation as a financially strong and highly respected company. We believe: Providing the customer with products and services they value more than those of our competitors is critical to our success. Talented, well-trained, committed and mutually supportive people working to the highest standards of performance and integrity are what make success possible. The profitable growth of our businesses makes career opportunities and personal growth possible. Profitability is the ultimate measure of our success.

Key Dates:

1792:

Insurance Company of North America (INA) is formed in Philadelphia as a marine insurer.

1794:

INA is incorporated and is authorized to write marine, fire, and life insurance.

1819:

Aetna Insurance Company is founded to sell casualty insurance.

1865:

Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG) is founded.

1913:

CG begins offering group life insurance.

1918:

A group of U.S. insurance executives form the American Foreign Insurance Association (AFIA) to offer insurance written by its members overseas.

1962:

CG acquires Aetna as its property and casualty arm.

1967:

To diversify its activities, INA creates a holding company, INA Corporation, with Insurance Company of North America becoming its main subsidiary; in a similar move, CG creates its own holding company, Connecticut General Insurance Corporation.

1978:

INA diversifies into health insurance.

1981:

Connecticut General Insurance Corporation is renamed Connecticut General Corporation.

1982:

INA and CG merge to form CIGNA Corporation.

1984:

CIGNA acquires AFIA and merges it into its existing international operations.

1987:

The Aetna Insurance subsidiary is renamed CIGNA Property and Casualty Insurance Company.

1990:

CIGNA acquires EQUICOR, the sixth largest provider of employee benefits in the United States.

1996:

Regulators approve CIGNA's plan for a split in its domestic property and casualty operations, between ongoing policies and previous policies related to asbestos and environmental liabilities.

1997:

Healthsource, a New Hampshire-based managed-care firm, is acquired.

1998:

The company's U.S. individual life insurance and annuity operations are sold to Lincoln National Corporation.

1999:

CIGNA sells its domestic and international property and casualty operations to ACE Limited of Bermuda.

Company History:

Further Reading:

• Bennett, Johanna, and Laurie McGinley, "Cigna Medicare-HMO Retreat May Signal Trend," Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2000, p. B2.
• Burton, Thomas M., "Lincoln Agrees to Buy Units from Cigna," Wall Street Journal, July 29, 1997, pp. A3, A8.
• Byrne, John A., and Richard Morais, "Cignoids Versus Afians," Forbes, September 24, 1984, p. 218.
• Carr, William H.A., Perils, Named and Unnamed: The Story of the Insurance Company of North America, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
  Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, 1865-1965, Hartford, Conn.: Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, 1965.
• "Could Cigna Be a Merger Casualty?," Financial World, September 19, 1984, p. 86.
• David, Gregory E., "Beauty and the Beast," Financial World, November 9, 1993, pp. 79-81.
• Hals, Tom, "The Cigna Split: What Will Be the Fallout?," Philadelphia Business Journal, February 16, 1996, p. 1.
• James, Marquis, Biography of a Business, 1792-1942: Insurance Company of North America, Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1942, reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1976.
• Jebsen, Per H., "Cigna Forms Unit to Offer New Services," Wall Street Journal, October 6, 1997, p. A11.
• Kertesz, Louise, "Quiet Giant: Among Managed-Care Plans, Cigna HealthCare Is the Biggest and Most-Often Overlooked," Modern Healthcare, March 10, 1997, pp. 90+.
• Lenckus, Dave, "CIGNA Reorganization Plan Unleashes Criticism," Business Insurance, December 23, 1996, p. 19.
• Lohse, Deborah, "Cigna's Finalizing of Restructuring Is Dealt a Blow," Wall Street Journal, June 11, 1998, p. A6.
• Lohse, Deborah, and Nancy Ann Jeffrey, "Cigna Is in Talks to Sell Operations to Ace," Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1998, p. A3.
• Loomis, Carol J., and Margaret A. Elliott, "How Cigna Took a $1.2-Billion Bath," Fortune, March 17, 1986, p. 46.
• Lublin, Joann S., "Cigna Director's Diversity Challenge Hits a Dead End," Wall Street Journal, June 15, 1998, p. B1.
• Milligan, John W., "Robert Kilpatrick Hangs Tough," Institutional Investor, September 1987, p. 257.
• O'Donnell, Thomas, and Laura Rohman, "The Honeymooners," Forbes, May 10, 1982, p. 124.
• Ruwell, Mary Elizabeth, Eighteenth Century Capitalism: The Formation of American Marine Insurance Companies, New York: Garland, 1993.
• Scism, Leslie, "Cigna Restructuring Plan Is Set Back," Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1997, p. A4.
• ------, "Cigna's Pact to Buy Healthsource Inc. to Boost Firm's Managed-Care Business," Wall Street Journal, March 3, 1997, p. A4.
• ------, "For Cigna, Property-Casualty Line Still Proves Tricky," Wall Street Journal, August 21, 1995, p. B4.
• Souter, Gavin, "ACE Suing CIGNA over Terms of Sale," Business Insurance, December 18, 2000, pp. 1, 34.
• ------, "ACE to Buy CIGNA's P/C Units," Business Insurance, January 18, 1999, pp. 1, 22.
• Weber, Joseph, "Is CIGNA's Asbestos Plan Fireproof?," Business Week, December 16, 1996, p. 118.
• Weber, Joseph, William Glasgall, and Richard A. Melcher, "Is Cigna Creating a Time Bomb?," Business Week, November 6, 1995, p. 158.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 45. St. James Press, 2002.

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