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24 Hartford Business Journal • November 26, 2012 www.HartfordBusiness.com Celebrating 20 Years of Business News INSURANCE 20 Years of Greater Hartford debuted as site of a profes- sional golf tournament in 1952 with the Insurance City Open. Over the next 60 years, the often bumpy economic road saw sponsors come and go but the show went on to the delight of local nonprofit and golfing communities. Sometimes, it took herculean effort as it did when Travelers came to a dramatic rescue of the event in 2006. Canon had ended an 18-year run as title spon- sor alongside the Greater Hartford Jaycees in 2002. Buick stepped in as a sponsor in 2004-06. But as plans took shape for the 2007 pro tour, Greater Hart- ford was on the outside looking in. Hartford caught a break in August, 2006, when 84 Lumber pulled out as sponsor of a PGA Tour event in western Pennsylvania, opening a spot on the calendar. Insurer St. Paul Travelers pounced on the chance to become the title sponsor. A four-year deal was hammered out in two days, tournament director Nathan Grube said. And Hart- ford was back on the tour calendar for June 21-24, 2007, at TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell. And neither the Travelers nor Hartford has looked back since. Despite fears that other insurance companies might shy away from supporting an event bear- ing a rival's name, St. Paul Travelers' action was universally hailed as a giant step for Hartford. Estimates put the event's economic impact at $23 million each year. g As Aetna noted about the sale, " The sale helps Aetna redefine itself as an independent health and group benefits company." Huber left the company after poor stock and public relations performance. He once famously professed that doctors wanted to be paid as much money as possible for doing as little work as they could. At the time of his departure, opponents of HMO programs like those offered by The Aetna, hailed Huber as the poster boy for reform. ``You could not invent Richard Huber,'' Court said. ``His arrogance and loquaciousness and sheer remorselessness over the condition of patients makes the per- fect case why we need HMO reform. This is a real loss for our movement.," said amie Court, advocacy director at the Foundation for Tax- payer and Consumer Rights, in an interview with The Hartford Courant. Lots of Love for An Office Building & a Tower Cigna's proposed demolition of the Wilde building at its Bloomfield campus (for devel- opment of a golf course and housing) was derided by preservationists who championed the building's historical roots. On a different note, The Travelers is making its landmark tower all spiffy and new after 93 years. In 1957, the former Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. was a pioneer when it moved its business operations out of Hart- ford into the 827,000 sq. ft. building that was renowned for such as things as four interior courtyards (so no employee was ever more than 35 feet from a window) to its own bowl- ing alley, medical and dental offices, and club- rooms with kitchens. In 2008, after paying $50 million, MetLife moved its Hartford and outlying operations to buildings on the Cigna campus. MetLife bought CIGNA's South Building, two nearby buildings and about 48 acres in the transac- tion, according to a Hartford Courant story from 2007. Travelers, meanwhile, is making a $30 mil- lion investment to do a major maintenance and rehab of the building, which it has owned since 1919. "Travelers recognizes the tower is an iconic building in the city of Hartford and it's important to us that we maintain it," spokeswoman Jennifer Wislocki said. While some larger corporate tenants have reduced their downtown Hartford footprint in recent years, Travelers has been holding and adding space. The company now employs 7,000 people in the state, with most located on their downtown Hartford campus. Cigna Changed Its Corporate Look, Too In the midst of its real estate rede- velopment, Cigna also went through a corporate redevelopment as well. In May 2002, after losing $398 million on revenues of $19.2 billion the prior year (largely because of a $1 billion charge against its discontinued reinsurance operations), the company deployed a new focus on its four core lines of busi- ness: health care, retirement and invest- ment services, group life and disability, and, international life and employee benefits. It turned out to be a significant year for the insurer. Cigna received approval to enter the Chinese life insurance mar- ket, the first established after China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, according to the insurer's website. Later in the year, a joint venture was established to market life insur- ance in Shenzhen. In February 2004, the company announced that it was eliminating 3000 jobs to reduce operating expenses by $300 million. In 2003, it reported $668 million in profits on $18.8 billion in rev- enue. The job cuts were in reaction to a declining customer base. Those layoffs came on the heels of laying off an addi- tional 3200 people, including 500 jobs at its headquarters in Bloomfield, in 2002. Lots of Love for Logos There are two insurance company logos permanently seared into the brains of Greater Hartford residents: the stag of The Hartford and the Traveler's red umbrella. Both suffered losses albeit of a different kind. For about five years, from 2002 to 2007, the red umbrella was co-opted by Citi- group, which was the result of a 1997 merger between Travelers and Citicorp. Citigroup divested itself of Travelers in 2002 but kept the logo. Finally, in 2007, the then-named St. Paul's Travelers Insurance re-acquired the logo and promptly started calling itself Trav- elers once again. The Hartford never lost its logo but the logo did lose a little bit of its masculinity in 1996. The redesign appeared to have neu- tered the mighty stag. Fourteen years later the Hartford itself would undergo a financial neutering up on Asylum Hill. The Stag Stumbles The mid-half of the 21st century's first decade was not a good one financially for The Hartford. Missteps saw the company's value drop precipitously and led to the shedding of some of its assets. The company started its centennial year in May 2010 by ringing the bell on Wall Street and then announcing it was selling some commercial mortgage assets as the mar- ket improves. It sold commercial mortgage assets after more than $1 billion of write- downs from the end of 2007 to June 2010. The insurer lost money for five consecu- tive quarters through parts of 2008 and 2009, forcing it to accept a $2.5 billion capital infu- sion from German insurer Allianz SE, and $3.4 billion in federal bailout funds. The Stag also reduced its local workforce by 1000 positions in 2009 and 2010. It repaid the fed- eral bailout in 2010. A Cluster for Connecticut Connecticut's Insurance & Financial Services (IFS) Cluster was established in 2003 to foster cooperation and collaboration between business, academia and state gov- ernment. The successful partnership contin- ues to be a model for workforce development and economic development in the U.S., the cluster proclaimed on its website. The cluster has done things like sponsor an annual actuarial boot camp that provides students the opportunity to learn about the actuarial profession directly from local actu- aries and professionals. The camp is seen as a way of recruiting future actuaries to come work in Hartford. United Healthcare United Healthcare has developed a repu- tation as a major nationwide player in the healthcare insurance business. While based in Minnesota, it has a large presence here in Greater Hartford with more than 4000 employees. United Healthcare has long had a repu- tation in this area for its innovations. Its Uniprise subsidiary by 2002 had managed to automate more than 75 percent of its then annual 210 million claims. In 2006, it Travelers steps in to save PGA event The Travelers' Anthony Sisti took volunteerism to a new level in 2007, leading the local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to a fund- raising record. Sisti is pictured at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where JDRF research has been used to help numerous patients. The unique design of the Phoenix headquarters looks out over the Riverfront Recapture, an idea propelled by Phoenix CEO Robert Fiondella. On hand in Hartford in 2006 to announce Travelers' PGA tour sponsorship were, from left, Nathan Grube, tournament director; Travelers Chairman and CEO Jay Fishman; and then PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.