Saint Heroine

Insurance companies offer products that most of us need and in doing so take on many of the risks that we don't want. Insurance companies tend to be viewed as big, relatively boring financial institutions, but they are, in fact, in the business of protecting others from financial harm and risk management. Historically, insurance companies were structured as mutual companies, owned by the policyholders and operated only for the benefit of policyholders. On the other hand, stock companies are owned by shareholders and they seek to maximize return to shareholders. In recent years, many mutual companies have converted into stock companies in a process called demutualization. Because mutual companies do not issue shares to the public, only stock companies can be invested in the stock market. Insurance companies sell policies that promise to payout a benefit to the policyholder if a covered event occurs during the term of the policy. With life insurance, the covered event would be death ...