Massachusetts Insurance (MA)

Insurance is an important business in Massachusetts, and some of the largest life and property and casualty insurance companies in the nation have their headquarters in Boston. As of 2000, there were 56 property and casualty and 18 life and health insurance companies incorporated or organized in the state.

In 2001 there were 3.2 million ordinary life insurance policies in force with a total value of $277.2 billion; total value for all categories of life insurance (ordinary, group, industrial, and credit) was $475.7 billion. Death benefits paid that year totaled $1.2 billion. That year, property and casualty insurers wrote premiums totaling $7.3 billion. That year, there were 39,153 flood insurance policies in force in the state, with a total value of $5.6 million.

New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Boston was the first mutual company to be chartered in the US and remains one of the largest firms in the business. John Hancock Mutual Life, also of Boston, is one of the largest life insurance companies in the US.

In 1971, Massachusetts became the first state in the US to implement a no-fault automobile insurance law. All aspects of the insurance business in Massachusetts, including the licensing of agents and brokers and the examination of all insurance companies doing business in the state, are controlled by the Division of Insurance, under the Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.