Assurant, Inc. is a global protection company that partners with the world’s leading brands to safeguard and service connected devices, homes and automobiles.
The company leverages data-driven technology solutions to provide exceptional customer experiences. The company operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific through two operating segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. Through the company’s Global Lifestyle segment, the company provides mobile device soluti...
Assurant, Inc. is a global protection company that partners with the world’s leading brands to safeguard and service connected devices, homes and automobiles.
The company leverages data-driven technology solutions to provide exceptional customer experiences. The company operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific through two operating segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. Through the company’s Global Lifestyle segment, the company provides mobile device solutions, extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products (referred to as ‘Connected Living’); and vehicle protection services, commercial equipment services and other related services (referred to as ‘Global Automotive’). Through the company’s Global Housing segment, the company provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing and flood insurance, as well as voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance (referred to as ‘Homeowners’); and renters insurance and other products (referred to as ‘Renters and Other’).
Strategy
As the company focuses on executing its strategy, the company is positioned for continued long-term profitable growth by growing the company’s portfolio of market-leading businesses; and providing integrated offerings through a superior customer experience.
Segments
Global Lifestyle segment
Products and Services
The key lines of business in Global Lifestyle are: Connected Living, which includes mobile device solutions (including extended service contracts, insurance policies and device lifecycle related services), extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and financial services and other insurance products; and Global Automotive.
Connected Living: Through partnerships with mobile service providers (including carriers, retailers, original equipment manufacturers (‘OEMs’) and cable operators) and financial and other institutions, the company underwrites and provides administrative support and related services for extended service contracts. These contracts provide consumers with coverage on mobile devices and consumer electronics and appliances, protecting them from certain covered losses. The company pays the cost of repairing or replacing these consumer goods in the event of loss, theft, accidental damage, mechanical breakdown or electronic malfunction after the manufacturer's warranty expires. The company’s strategy is to provide integrated service solutions to the company’s clients that address all aspects of the insurance or extended service contract, including program design and marketing strategy, risk management, data analytics, customer support and claims handling, supply chain services, service delivery and repair and logistics management, while ensuring exceptional customer experience measured through the company’s net promoter scores. For example, the company provides end-to-end mobile device lifecycle solutions in the company’s mobile business from when the device is received and inspected, repaired or refurbished, to when it is ultimately disposed of through a sale to a third-party or used to support an insurance claim. In addition to extended protection for multiple devices, the company’s mobile offerings include trade-in and upgrade programs, premium technical support, including device self-diagnostic tools, and device disposition. The company also sells repaired or refurbished mobile and other electronic devices, as well as provide Certified Pre-Owned (‘CPO’) devices to the company’s clients to fulfill their insurance and consumer needs. The company provides in-store, same-day device repairs to customers through the company’s nationwide network of over 900 repair and partner locations that support both the company’s insurance and non-insurance customers. With the required administrative capability, digital platforms enabling on-boarding, claims management and service delivery, supply chain management, technical support infrastructure, insurance underwriting capabilities and a variety of adjacent value-added services, like trade-in and upgrade and asset value recovery, the company maintain a differentiated position in this marketplace.
Within Connected Living, the company’s global financial services business maintains a suite of protection and assurance products that deliver a combination of features and benefits for varying customer segment needs. With major financial services clients, the company provides value-added financial services in the U.S. and internationally, ranging from credit insurance to inclusive credit card benefits, packaged bank account benefits and travel coverages.
Global Automotive: The company underwrites and provides administrative services for vehicle service contracts (‘VSCs’) and ancillary products providing coverage for vehicles, including automobiles, trucks, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, construction and agricultural equipment, as well as parts. For VSCs, the company pays the cost of repairing a customer’s vehicle in the event of mechanical breakdown. For ancillary products, including relating to commercial and other leased or financed equipment, coverage varies, but, generally, the company pays the cost of repairing, servicing or replacing parts or provide other financial compensation in the event of mechanical breakdown, accidental damage or theft. The company provides integrated service offerings to the company’s clients, including program design and marketing strategy, risk management, data analytics, customer support and claims handling, reinsurance facilitation, actuarial consulting, experiential and digital training and performance management. The company works closely with its global partners to develop innovative offerings that reflect the evolution of the auto market, such as Assurant Vehicle Care which represents a majority of dealer services contracts providing a comprehensive suite of enhanced vehicle protection products and a new digital experience for consumers. The company also provides risk management solutions tailored for commercial and leased equipment where the company’s core products include insurance tracking and physical damage insurance.
Distribution and Clients
Global Lifestyle operates globally, with approximately 82.1% of its revenue from North America (the U.S. and Canada), 7.5% from Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru), 5.9% from Europe (the United Kingdom (the ‘U.K.’), France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands) and 4.5% from the Asia Pacific (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong for the year ended December 31, 2024). In fourth quarter 2023, the company made the decision to fully exit the company’s operations in mainland China (other than Hong Kong), which were subsequently sold in 2024. Global Lifestyle focuses on establishing strong, long-term relationships with clients that are leaders in their markets, including leading distributors of the company’s products and services. In Connected Living, the company partners with mobile service providers (including carriers, retailers, OEMs and cable operators) and financial and other institutions to market the company’s mobile device solutions, with some of the largest OEMs, consumer electronics retailers, appliance retailers (including e-commerce retailers) and cable operators to market the company’s extended service contracts and related services, and with financial institutions, insurers and retailers to market the company’s credit and other insurance products. In Global Automotive, the company partners with auto dealers and agents, third-party administrators, manufacturers, equipment retailers and large banks and financing companies to market the company’s vehicle protection, commercial equipment-related products and other related services. Many of the company’s agreements in Global Lifestyle are exclusive and multi-year with terms generally between three and five years and allow the company to integrate its administrative systems with those of the company’s clients.
In the company’s financial services business, the company’s focus is on expanding its partnerships with leading financial institutions to offer travel, purchase protection, and other credit card benefits, including underwriting and claims processing, and packaged bank account offerings to their customers.
Seasonality
The company experiences seasonal fluctuations that impact demand in each of its lines of business. For example, seasonality for extended service contracts and VSCs aligns with the seasonality of the retail and automobile markets.
Global Housing segment
Products and Services
The key lines of business in Global Housing are Homeowners and Renters and Other, each as described below.
Homeowners: The company provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing and flood insurance, as well as voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance.
Lender-placed Homeowners Insurance. Lender-placed homeowners insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance offered through the company’s lender-placed program. The lender-placed program provides collateral protection to lenders, mortgage servicers and investors in mortgaged properties in the event that a homeowner does not maintain insurance on a mortgaged dwelling. Lender-placed homeowners insurance provides structural coverage, similar to that of a standard homeowners policy. The amount of coverage is often based on the last known insurance coverage under the prior policy for the property and provides replacement cost coverage on the property. It protects both the lender’s interest and the borrower’s interest and equity. The company also provides real estate owned (‘REO’) insurance, consisting of insurance on foreclosed properties managed by the company’s clients.
In the majority of cases, the company uses proprietary insurance-tracking administration systems linked with the administrative systems of the company’s clients to monitor clients’ mortgage portfolios to verify the existence of insurance on each mortgaged property and identify those that are uninsured. If there is a potential lapse in insurance coverage, the company begins a process of outreach and notification to the homeowner and the last known insurance carrier or agent through phone calls, written correspondence and in some cases direct interfaces with insurance carriers, which generally takes up to 90 days to complete. If coverage cannot be verified at the end of this process, the mortgage servicer procures a lender-placed policy. The process of tracking voluntary coverage - including determining whether voluntary coverage is in force, the policy limits in place, the perils insured and the deductibles, and obtaining other required insurance related information - is part of the company’s risk exposure management for the company’s lender-placed insurance business. The exposure management process is needed in order to underwrite the risk the company assumes, to understand loss exposure and to communicate with appropriate parties, including the lender, insurance agent and homeowner. The company’s placement rates reflect the ratio of insurance policies placed to tracked hazard loans. The homeowner always retains the option to obtain or renew the insurance in the voluntary insurance market.
Lender-placed Manufactured Housing Insurance. Lender-placed manufactured housing insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance for manufactured housing offered through the company’s lender-placed program. Lender-placed manufactured housing insurance is issued after an insurance tracking and exposure management process similar to that described above. In most cases, tracking is performed using a proprietary insurance-tracking administration system.
Lender-placed Flood Insurance. Lender-placed flood insurance consists of flood insurance offered through the company’s lender-placed program. It provides collateral protection to lenders in mortgaged properties in the event a homeowner does not maintain required flood insurance. Lender-placed flood insurance is issued after an insurance tracking and exposure management process similar to that described above.
Voluntary Insurance. The company offers voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance. The company’s voluntary insurance products generally provide structural, contents and liability coverage.
Renters and Other: The company provides renters insurance and other products, as described below.
Renters Insurance. The company provides integrated solutions across the resident lifecycle. The company offers renters insurance for a wide variety of single and multi-family rental properties, providing content protection for renters’ personal belongings and liability protection for the property owners against renter-caused damage. The company also offers an integrated billing and tracking platform for the company’s clients and their customers. In addition, the company provides tenant bonds as an alternative to security deposits, which allows the company’s clients to offer a lower move-in cost option while minimizing the risk of loss from damages, and receivables management, which helps the company’s clients to maximize the collection of amounts owed by prior tenants.
Other Products. The company is the second largest administrator for the U.S. government under the voluntary National Flood Insurance Program (the ‘NFIP’), for which the company earns fees for collecting premiums and processing claims. This business is 100% reinsured to the U.S. government.
Distribution and Clients
Global Housing establishes long-term relationships with leading mortgage lenders and servicers, manufactured housing lenders, property managers, and financial, insurance and other institutions. Lender-placed insurance products are distributed primarily through mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers and financial and other institutions. The majority of the company’s lender-placed agreements are exclusive. Typically, these agreements have terms of three to five years and allow the company to integrate the company’s systems with those of the company’s clients. Renters products are distributed primarily through property management companies and affinity marketing partners. The company offers its voluntary insurance programs primarily through manufactured housing lenders and retailers, along with independent specialty agents. Independent specialty agents also distribute flood products and other property products.
Seasonality
The company experiences seasonal fluctuation in several of the company’s lines of business, which are exposed to the risk of catastrophe and non-catastrophe losses. Catastrophe events such as hurricanes typically occur in the second half of the year (year ended December 2024). The company also experiences some seasonal fluctuation in non-catastrophe weather-related claims that tend to occur in the first half of the year.
Intellectual Property
The company has a trademark portfolio that the company considers important in the marketing of the company’s products and services, including the ‘Assurant’ brand name.
Regulation
The company is licensed to sell insurance through its insurance subsidiaries in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
The company is subject to regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (‘ERISA’).
Certain of the company’s activities are subject to the privacy requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which, along with regulations adopted thereunder, generally requires insurers to provide customers with notice regarding how their nonpublic personal financial information is used and the opportunity to ‘opt out’ of certain disclosures, if applicable.
Regulations under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ‘Dodd-Frank Act’) address mortgage servicers’ obligations to correct errors asserted by mortgage loan borrowers; provide certain information requested by such borrowers; and provide protections to such borrowers in connection with lender-placed insurance. These requirements affect the company’s operations because, in many instances, the company administers such operations on behalf of its mortgage servicer clients.
The company is subject to regulation and supervision of its international operations in various jurisdictions. These regulations, which vary depending on the jurisdiction, include, among others, anti-corruption laws; solvency and market conduct regulations; various privacy, insurance, tax, tariff and trade laws and regulations; and corporate, employment, intellectual property and investment laws and regulations. The company operates in various jurisdictions, including Canada, the U.K., France, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Germany, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore, and in several of these jurisdictions, the company’s businesses are supervised by local regulatory authorities. In fourth quarter 2023, the company made the decision to fully exit its operations in mainland China (other than Hong Kong).
As a company with publicly-traded securities, the company is subject to certain legal and regulatory requirements applicable generally to public companies, including the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the ‘SEC’) and the New York Stock Exchange (the ‘NYSE’) relating to public reporting and disclosure, accounting and financial reporting, corporate governance and other matters. One of the company’s subsidiaries is a broker-dealer that is registered with the SEC and with the state securities commissions in all 50 states, and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The company is subject to certain U.S. and foreign laws applicable to businesses generally, including anti-corruption laws. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (the ‘FCPA’) regulates the U.S. companies in their dealings with foreign officials and prohibits bribes and similar practices. In addition, the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act has wide applicability to certain activities that affect the U.K. companies, their commercial activities in the U.K., and potentially that of their affiliates located outside of the U.K. Anti-bribery and corruption laws and regulations continue to be implemented and/or enhanced across most of the jurisdictions in which the company operates.
The company is subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the U.S. and abroad regarding privacy, data protection and data security. These laws and regulations are continuously evolving and developing. Since the enactment of EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), multiple countries where the company conduct business have or are in the process of enacting comprehensive data protection laws that largely model GDPR. In the United States, the company is subject to a variety of federal and state privacy and data security laws and regulations.
As the company continues to grow and evolve its business mix to cover other non-insurance-based products and services, the company has become subject to other legal and regulatory requirements, including regulations of the CFPB and other federal, state and municipal regulatory bodies, as well as additional regulatory bodies in non-U.S. jurisdictions.
History
Assurant, Inc. was founded in 1892. The company was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 2004.
