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The Once and Future C&F - Building an Empire
Allocating business to 26 different companies in a fair and responsible manner was a challenge â so over the next decade, C&F made a push for quality over quantity. They helped merge several of the companies, resulting in better protection for policyholders and more equitable returns for shareholders. As they were rolling up some of the smaller legal entities, C&F had to decide which names to keep and which names to merge out of existence. As much of this activity was happening with World War I raging in the background, C&F decided that the name United States Fire Insurance Company was more patriotic and distinguished than some of the others â which is one of the reasons United States Fire is C&Fâs flagship company even today. WWI also brought opportunities: when foreign companies were banned from writing business in the US, C&F acquired International Insurance Company from Hamburg Assurance Company of Germany. The relationship between C&F and the insurance companies evolved right up until 1967, when C&F completed its program of acquiring majority ownership of the companies it managed and took on its modern holding company form.
Illustration from the C&F Annual Report, 1966.
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