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Insurance & Financial Services INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › 48 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2016 ance industry thrived as the captains of merchant vessels arranged policies to share the risks and profits of their ventures. By the late 1700s, Hartford merchants were offering fire insurance, and the state's General As- sembly awarded a charter to the state's first publicly owned insurance firm, the Hartford Fire Insurance Co., in 1810. Within a decade of that charter, the Aetna Fire Insurance Co. was established, and the city's reputation as a hub of reliable insur- ers was cemented in the aermath of devas- tating New York City fires in 1835 and 1845. Hartford insurance companies made good on their policies and others did not. Hartford-based insurers were the first to offer accident insurance, auto insurance and aviation insurance. During World War II, Travelers helped insure the development of the atomic bomb. Today, there are more than 1,400 do- mestic and international insurance entities doing business in Connecticut. In recent years, the industry in Connecticut has directly written more than $30 billion in premiums annually and the state continues to attract insurance firms to move within its borders. For example, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care entered the Connecticut market in mid-2014 and now has more than 800 em- ployees in the state with most of that growth taking place last year. Specialty insurance firm Navigators Group established a foot- hold in Connecticut with five employees in Stamford in 2013, and has since grown that number to more than 150. Eric Schultz, Harvard Pilgrim's CEO, was perhaps attracted to Connecticut for personal reasons. He's a Shelton native, at- tended the University of Connecticut and later Yale University. His first insurance job was at Bloomfield-based Cigna. Schultz and Harvard Pilgrim recognized a clear opportunity in the insurance capital. "Our vision is to become a leading health services organization in New England," Schultz said. "We're in Massachu- setts, New Hampshire and Maine, and Connecticut was a perfect next move. It's highly populated, it's contiguous [with Harvard Pilgrim's existing market], and it's got an employer profile that fits very well with the products and services we sell." Connecticut was once home to a number of nonprofit health plans that le the state or converted to for-profit status, and Harvard Pilgrim recognized an opportunity to bring that business model back to the state. So far, the customer base here seems to be embrac- ing that, Schultz said. Harvard Pilgrim's expansion into Con- necticut is also an astute recognition of the diminishing importance borders play in the health insurance market, especially in New England. "People live and work in Connecticut and Massachusetts," Schultz said. "e state line has very little meaning for the health insurance industry, and it'll have even less as the industry changes from employer-pur- chased to individually purchased policies." Appealing to Millennials For Winkler, the industry's success and continued prominence in Connecticut is about much more than the numbers. In order for the state to maintain its position as the insurance capital, insurers here must embrace, master and maintain thought lead- ership over the broad-based changes in the industry and in the economy at large. In an economy that thrives on disruption and is accelerating toward a digital future, Connecticut is in a unique and fortuitous position, Winkler said. "We're not a call center," Winkler added. "ese are actuaries, enterprise management and risk assessment people who are assess- ing the data to make sure [the industry] is handling the challenge." Insurance carriers are promoting "vir- tual doctors," and innovations like that are being developed here in Connecticut. "at It was a packed house at a hotel ballroom in Hartford for the Connecticut Insurance and Financial Ser vices Cluster's "Get Hired" career fair. Katharine L. Wade, commissioner, CT Department of Insurance > Continued from page 47 ' We take great pride in being a rigorous department, but at the same time we strike a balance with companies because we want them to do business and grow in Connecticut. ' — Katharine L. Wade, commissioner, ct department of insurance PHOTO/JULIE DALY MEEHAN PHOTO/DEPT. OF INSURANCE