The three Amos brothers, John, Paul and Bill, founded American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus, Georgia (later changed to the American Family Life Assurance Company - Aflac) in 1955 and built it into the premier provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States and the number one insurance company in terms of individual insurance policies in force in Japan. Aflac is now a Fortune 500 company insuring 50 million people in the U.S. and Japan.
In 1958, Aflac developed a ground-breaking cancer expense policy. In its initial year 5,810 plans were sold and by the end of the decade 376 agents were selling insurance in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Additional policies to cover accidents, disability, dental work, specified health events, hospital confinement, hospital intensive care, and vision have since been added to Aflac's offerings.
In 1964 Aflac pioneered the "cluster-selling" technique of making presentations to groups of employees. Today, more than 96 percent of the company's policies are purchased at work, most on a payroll-deduction basis. Aflac has more than 75,000 sales representatives in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. In Japan, more than 110,000 licensed sales associates and more than 17,000 individual or independent corporate agencies sell our products (Aflac Annual Report for 2009).
In the mid-1970s Aflac entered the Japanese market. Only the third U.S. company licensed to sell insurance in Japan, Aflac offered a product that was not yet available from Japanese insurers at a time when cancer awareness was growing. Using techniques similar to the U.S. practice of cluster selling, by 1987, Japan accounted for two-thirds of Aflac's revenues and approximately 70 percent of earnings. Today Japan accounts for about 75% of revenues.
In 1990, Daniel P. Amos was named CEO of Aflac Incorporated. After several unsuccessful attempts to increase Aflac's brand awareness, on January 1, 2000, Mr. Amos boldly introduced America to the Aflac Duck. A marketing sensation, the Aflac Duck is now a corporate icon and holds a place on Madison Avenues Walk of Fame and is part of American pop culture.
Throughout its history, Aflac has earned a reputation for strong ethics by doing things the Aflac way. In 2007 Aflac CEO Dan Amos proposed and the Board of Directors approved the first ever shareholders vote on executive compensation, known as "Say on Pay". The initiative gave unprecedented access to shareholders in determining whether executives were receiving compensation commensurate with company success. In May, 2008, Shareholders first approved the company's compensation policies with 93 percent voting in favor and have voted in favor of it every year since.
Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere Magazine as a World's Most Ethical Company each year from 2007 to 2010, while Reputation Institute has named Aflac as the most reputable insurance company in the world in 2008 and 2009. In January 2011, Aflac was named by FORTUNE to the Best Places to Work list for the 13th consecutive year.
