Daring to Dream

1920s

1927 – Herman Wittwer launches Farmers Mutual Automobile Insurance Company on October 3rd in Madison, WI.

1930 – The company establishes the National Mutual Casualty Company, focused on protecting non-farmers.

1933 – National Mutual and Farmer’s Mutual merge, and Farmer’s Mutual enters Minnesota.

1935 – Farmers Mutual establishes the State Farm Mutual Insurance Company of Madison, Wisconsin, which quickly becomes the state’s fastest-growing windstorm company.

1940s

1948 –State Farm Mutual of Madison is renamed Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Wisconsin.

1950s

1957 – Farmers Mutual introduces sickness and accident insurance – and receives forty applications on the first day alone.

1958 – The company introduces homeowners insurance and opens the highly successful American Family Life Insurance Company, which expands to ten states within the year.

1959 – Farmers Mutual enters the age of the computer. The room-sized RAMAC 305 could process a week’s worth of applications and 1,000 renewal notices in just 2½ hours.

1960s

1963 – With one final name change, American Family Mutual Insurance Company, S.I. is born.

1965 – The now-famous, oft-hummed and forever recognizable jingle is copyrighted by American Family.

1970s

1975 – American Family introduces Commercial Lines and becomes the fifth-largest mutual auto insurer.

1977 – The company celebrates 50 years in business with 2.3 million policies and 2,360 agents.

1980s

1981 – American Family reaches a new milestone of financial strength, with assets surpassing $1 billion.

1985 – The company establishes American Family Brokerage, Inc. to serve policyholders by finding insurers to cover hard-to-place risks.

1987 – A centralized catastrophe (CAT) program is developed, in order to efficiently help customers affected by catastrophic storms and disasters.

1990s

1992 – Policyholders’ surplus exceeds $1 billion. Construction of national headquarters in Madison, Wis. is completed.

1994 – American Family rolls out its one-of-a-kind catastrophe trailer.

2000s

2005 – American Family and the Green Bay Packers raise more than $1 million for breast cancer prevention, treatment and research through the sale of pink Packers caps.

2007 – American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., celebrates its grand opening, with American Family serving as the lead donor.

2010s

2011 — American Family launches the "Dreams Protected" campaign, challenging people to reflect on the most valuable thing they can ever own — their dreams.

2012 — American Family Insurance acquires the Nashville-based Permanent General Companies (The General) and other subsidiaries of the PGC Holdings Corp.

2013 – American Family brings Homesite, a Boston-based direct homeowners insurance provider, into its portfolio.

2017 – American Family installs Wisconsin’s largest rooftop solar installation to date with nearly 4,500 panels atop its National Headquarters building in Madison.

2017 – In its 90th year, American Family Insurance is the fourth largest Wisconsin-based company, and ranks 315 on the Fortune 500 list nationally with revenue of $8.8 billion. Including Homesite and The General, the company has more than 10,000 employees and nearly 3,000 agents.

2018 – American Family Insurance announces proposed merger with Florida-based The Main Street America Group, officially receiving policyholder approval in October.

2019 – American Family brings Ameriprise Auto & Home, a Wisconsin-based partnership auto and home insurance provider, into its portfolio, and rebrands as CONNECT, Powered by American Family Insurance.

2020s

2020 – American Family is first in the industry to offer premium relief to personal auto customers during Covid-19 pandemic (April 2020), and the last to close the program (March 2021). In total, nearly $530 million in premium was returned to nearly 2 million households during our premium relief efforts.

2022– Bill Westrate officially succeeds Jack Salzwedel as American Family’s new Chief Executive Officer.

2024 – American Family announces the sale of The General to Sentry Insurance. The transaction officially closed on Dec. 31, 2024.