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22 Hartford Business Journal • November 26, 2012 www.HartfordBusiness.com Celebrating 20 Years of Business News INSURANCE 20 Years of Section Sponsored By After mergers, layoffs, moves... Hartford remains insurance capital H ardly a news cycle goes by with- out developments in the insurance industry. Such is life in the 'insur- ance capital.' But over the past 20 years, not all the news has been good. A blur of mergers, name changes, law changes and shifting levels of employment have remade the landscape. Here's a look at some of the key stories: One merger turns into a much larger second In June 1994, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and Travelers Insurance Co. announced plans to merge and create a company called MetraHealth — at the time one of the nation's largest providers of health insurance in the country with 13 million people covered. Then just about six months later MetraHealth announced it would be merging with United Healthcare, which paid $1.65 billion for the company. At the time of the merger, the result- ing company had more than $8 billion in annu- al revenue and more than 40 million enrollees in a variety of programs providing health care management products and services. Connecticut Mutual Swallowed by MassMutual In the fall of 1995, Connecticut Mutual, one of the state's oldest corporations, shed its name and about 30 percent of its workforce when it was swallowed up by MassMutual. The merger created an insurance company with, at the time, $46.9 billion in insurance assets. MassMutual fled Hartford and took 1400 employees to Enfield in 2005. It moved them into property formerly owned by The Phoe- nix, which had taken its employees out of Enfield earlier to move them back to the Hartford area. Its stately headquarters on Garden Street were eventually acquired by The Hartford, located across the street. The 1926 Classical Revival building would be largely gutted in favor of more parking. Aetna Jettisons Its Property Casualty Division to Travelers In December 1995, Aetna made its first steps to becoming a major health insurance company when it sold its property and casu- alty division to crosstown rival Travelers for $4 billion in cash. The move resulted in 1500 job losses locally and about 3000 positions nationwide. As the New York Times noted about the deal, "The deal is a milestone for the Hartford-based companies, which started the 1980's as two of the country's best known and strongest insurers. But bad real estate investments, a surge in environ- mental cleanup claims from corporate cus- tomers and chronic problems in controlling expenses led the companies to look outside themselves for help." Windsor Becomes the Insurance Sub- urb of the World For years, Hartford was affectionately nicknamed the Insurance Capital of the World. In 2000, Windsor, its northern neigh- bor, made progress towards becoming the Insurance Suburb of the World. Aetna trans- ferred 1000 jobs from downtown to create a customer service center. The Hartford moved 500 information technology employees from Simsbury Huber Leaves, $5 Billion Arrives Aetna CEO Richard Huber's departure in February 2000 was widely hailed by the nation's medical profession, which was the target of scorn by the Aetna leader. The day before his departure Aetna was courted with a $5 billion purchase offer and assumption of $2.7 billion in debt. At the time, the acquisition made Dutch insurance and banking giant ING the largest life insurance and annuity broker in the U.S. in terms of premiums and the No. 6 insurer in terms of assets. It had been on a buying spree in at the end of the century buying insurance and financial service companies in the U.S. Hartford has long been known as the Insurance Capital of the World but, in 2000, Windsor made progress toward becoming the Insurance Suburb of the World. Trainees preparing to be claims adjusters learn the finer points of auto body construction at Travelers' Claim U in Windsor. The insurer open the 108,000-square-foot staet- of-the-art school in April 2007 in part as a way to attract new employees. C o n t r i b u t e d P h o t o h b J P h o t o / G r e G b o r d o n a r o When Richard Huber resigned as CEO of Aetna on Feb 25, 2000, one of the questions was who would tend the rooftop garden he'd cultivated atop the insurer's headquarters building. Continued on page 24