Western Mutual was incorporated under the laws of California on March 7, 1942 as a county mutual fire insurer with the title Coast Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Los Angeles County. It commenced business on April 30, 1942. Residence Mutual Insurance Company was founded in 1949. On June 27, 1973 amended articles of incorporation changed the form of operation to that of a general mutual insurance company with multiple line authority and the present title of Western Mutual was adopted. The group expanded from California to writing insurance in Nevada and Colorado in 2002. In 2005, Arizona Home Insurance Company was purchased and incorporated into the group, writing policies solely in Arizona while the group continued to expand into Utah and New Mexico. The group began writing new construction home business in Texas with its builder agents in 2007.
Company structure
Management of the company is under the direction of president and chief executive officer Joe Crail, who has held these positions since 1974 and has been active in the insurance industry since 1971. The company is based in Irvine, California, with offices in Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, NV and San Antonio, TX, with claims adjusters located throughout the states in which business is written.
Arizona Home Insurance Company
Arizona Home Insurance Company has been writing direct homeowners, dwelling fire, earthquake, and allied lines insurance for preferred homeowners in the state of Arizona for more than 25 years. While the company is part of the Western Mutual Insurance Group, Arizona Home Insurance writes only in Arizona, with an office in Scottsdale and claims adjusters employed throughout the state of Arizona.
Products
The Group provides homeowners, dwelling fire, condominium, flood, and earthquake insurance throughout the southwestern United States. The company uses extensive underwriting to create a niche market of "preferred homeowners" insurance with lower risk, enabling the company to pass these savings on to their policyholders.
Ratings
On October 24, 2013 A.M. Best awarded the top rating of A+ to the Western Mutual Insurance Group. This rating was affirmed January 4, 2019 with current assets of over $240 million and over $150 million in policyholder surplus. Residence Mutual was ranked #1 in the state of California for the lowest justified consumer complaints in their Homeowners Complaint Composite Report from 2012 to 2014. In 2019, for the eighth consecutive year, Western Mutual was named as a top performer in the Ward's Top 50 Property and Casualty Insurers list. This list is compiled each year by the Ward Group, after examining nearly 3,000 property and casualty insurers for safety, consistency, and performance metrics.
