Northwestern Mutual is one of the last true mutuals, meaning that our business structure genuinely brings into alignment the interests of both member policyowners and the company.
What does mutuality mean to you?
Northwestern Mutual doesn't have to choose between sometimes conflicting customer interests and shareholder interests because our mutual company structure allows us to focus solely and directly on our more than 3 million participating policyowners.
How does this work? After expenses and setting aside a safe margin for reserves and surplus each year to pay benefits, we return what otherwise would be "profits" to our participating life and disability insurance policyowner members in the form of dividends.1
In fact, we expect to pay an estimated $5.04 billion in dividends to policyowners during 2008.
Northwestern Mutual expects to lead the industry in total individual life insurance dividends paid to policyowners.
Mutuality also allows us to have a longer-term investment strategy when it comes to investments in our general account portfolio. Over time, that's produced higher returns and greater policyowner value.
Finally, mutuality means that while some companies try to attract new customers by only offering special benefits to them, we maintain our loyalty to current customers. We have a long tradition of extending to current policyowners the benefits available to new customers. In one instance alone, we offered $4.5 billion of additional insurance to existing policyowners at no increase in premium.
It all comes down to this. Our mutuality shows up in the four key values we have practiced since the beginning, and continue to practice each day:
- Doing what's right for policyowners and other clients.
- Building long-term relationships to meet their needs.
- Building and preserving financial strength.
- Offering world-class products and expert guidance that address changing needs over a lifetime.
Learn more from a local network representative.