Hanover GMAC Car Insurance Claims

Besides writing all the basic automobile insurance policies its competitors offer, Hanover GMAC is known for its new car replacement guard which covers the replacement of your vehicle – without any deduction for depreciation – should your car or truck be declared a total loss during its first year or before 15,000 miles, which ever comes sooner.

Hanover also has a second chance accident forgiveness coverage available which means that should a policyholder have an accident within a 36 month period, the surcharge will be forgiven and no points or increases will be imposed on the policy holder’s premium when it is renewed.

The company also offers coverage for interruption of trips, injury to pets or their death, up to $2,500 for essential services while a policy holder is recovering from injury and special coverage for electronic and customised details in or on a vehicle.

History of Hanover GMAC

The Hanover Insurance Company has been in business under one name or another since it was formed in New York City in 1852 as an insurance company offering personal and commercial property liability and fire protection coverage. The company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since its inception. Today its NYSE symbol is THG.

Early in the 20th Century, Hanover expanded the scope of its business to include motor and marine insurance. By 1916, auto insurance had become a significant sector in the insurance company’s profits.
Up until the 1970s, Hanover Insurance had relatively small growth numbers, but its stock managed to perform well through the economic downturn of the ’70s. From 1971 to 1983 the company’s common stock price increased by almost 25% to its peak in 1981, when it divided its shares to give three shares for every two held. This stock was traded on the OTC exchange, the forerunner of NASDAQ.

Hanover continued to grow and in 1984 its stock was again divided, this time two for one. By 1985 its stock price had almost doubled in value. The company had no debts and a book value of close to $330 million, but its earnings dipped to approximately one third of what they were in the early ’80s. After another two for one stock split in 1987, the book value of the company was $550 million.

By the time of the recession in the 1990s, the company’s earnings had declined to around $50 million. In 1993, the company reported earnings of more than $250 million and its stock price once again peaked. In 1994, trading under Allmerica Property & Casualty Companies, Inc, the company left NASDAQ and began trading on the NYSE under the symbol APY.

At the end of 1995, Hanover spun off one of the its subsidiaries, Allmerica Financial Corporation as a property and casualty insurance as well as a financial services holding company. The new holding company (AFC) had a book value of $1.4 billion along with $200 million in long term debt.

By the end of 1995, Allmerica Property & Casualty was rated as being in the top 30 casualty and property insurers in the US. The company had two primary subsidiaries, one being the original Hanover Insurance Company; the other, in business since 1993, being Citizens Corp which was also publicly traded and which, by 1996, held shareholder equity amounting to over $650 million.

It is to be noted that in 1994 Allmerica Financial Corp. had posted earnings of close to $75 million and by 1995, $140 million. In February 1997, Allmerica Property & Casualty Companies announced that it was to be purchased by Allmerica Financial Corporation for around $800 million. This made Allmerica Financial Corp. one of the biggest publicly traded insurance operations in the U.S.

Allmerica Property & Casualty Companies ceased trading on the NYSE. In December of 2005, Allmerica Financial Corporation was renamed The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc and became the parent company of Hanover Insurance and Citizens Insurance. Hanover decided to sell all of its life insurance affiliates.

Financial Information about Hanover Insurance Group

The Hanover has been rated by A M Best as A, Standard and Poor’s as A-, Moody’s as A3 and Fitch as A-. The company has over 4,000 employees and works with over 2,000 independent agents.

Hanover is now headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts.