On , Northwestern Mutual was founded as the Mutual Life Insurance Company of the State of
Wisconsin. Originally located in
Janesville, Wisconsin, the fledgling company relocated to Milwaukee in 1859. Shortly after, the company experienced its first two death claims, when an excursion train traveling from
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to
Chicago, Illinois derailed, killing 14 people, two of whom were policy owners. With losses amounting to US$3,500 (), while the company possessed only US$2,000 in funds (), company President Samuel Daggett and Treasurer Charles Nash personally lent the money to pay the claims immediately, making up the difference of US$1,500 (). In 1864, the company paid its first dividends to policy owners. It again paid dividends at three-year intervals, in 1867 and 1870, and two years later, as of 1872, started doing so annually. By 1865, the company was operating throughout the
Midwest and had entered the market along the
East Coast, and the board of trustees changed the company's name to The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Throughout the early years of the 20th century, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company focused on
life insurance. At the same time, the company worked to increase its accountability. In 1907, company leaders invited policy owners who were
not trustees to probe into finances for accountability. This practice has continued to the present day; members of the Policy owners’ Examining Committee have unrestricted access to evaluate Northwestern Mutual's operations, management and strategic plans independently. In the mid-20th century, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company invested in the iron and minerals industries on a large-scale basis, including the construction of a
lake freighter, the first such investment by any American life insurance company. In 1958, the company launched the freighter
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, named for longtime executive and newly elected company chairman Edmund Fitzgerald. At and 13,632
gross tons, the vessel was the largest ship on the Great Lakes for 13 years until 1971. The
Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975, in
Lake Superior, killing all 29 men aboard. The disaster was immortalized the next year by songwriter
Gordon Lightfoot in
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes and national shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels. In 1969, the company began offering
disability insurance. Less than a decade later, a series of retirement
annuities were introduced for the employee benefits market. In the 1990s, the company saw further growth with the introduction of its
long-term care insurance. In 2000, to reflect this broadening of its product offerings, the company changed its name again, shortening it to simply Northwestern Mutual. By 2001, Northwestern Mutual was the leading individual life insurer in the United States, and in that year committed that it would not refuse life or disability insurance claims related to the
September 11 attacks on the basis of an acts of war exclusion. Also that year, the company launched a
wholly owned subsidiary known today as Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC), a
federal savings bank and financial services provider. Additionally, in 2015, Northwestern Mutual bought financial planning company
LearnVest for over $250 million. In 2018, Northwestern Mutual reduced underwriting time and introduced an online digital platform for clients. From 2015 to 2020, Northwestern Mutual served as the presenting sponsor of the
Rose Bowl Game, an
NCAA Division I college football bowl game played annually on New Year's Day. As of 2021, the company has $308.8 billion in assets, $31.1 billion in revenues, and $2 trillion worth of active life insurance protection. Through its wealth management and investment services businesses, the company manages $200 billion of investments owned by its 4.75 million clients. ==Subsidiaries==