Financial History Issue 116 (Winter 2016) | Page 28
Courtesy of the Guardian Life Insurance Company
By 1890, Germania was an important
multinational corporation; in 1896, the
contribution of its European branch to its
total insurance in force peaked at just over
48%. Just 30 years later, however, Germania had changed its name to Guardian,
stopped writing new policies abroad and
began disposing of its existing foreign policies as best it could under deteriorating
economic conditions in Central Europe
and the close scrutiny of regulators on
both sides of the Atlantic. Although the
unwinding process was not completed
until after World War II, by 1925 only 1.2%
of the company’s insurance in force was of
foreign origin.
The Great War (1914–1918) was the
proximate cause of those major transformations in the company’s business and
brand. After America’s entry into the
war on the side of France and Great
Britain in early 1917, many (likely tho \