Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company

Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company is an American insurance company based in Columbia, South Carolina. Colonial Life offers disability, accident, life, cancer, critical illness and hospital confinement insurance plans in 49 states. Colonial Life was founded in 1939 by Edwin Averyt and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Unum in 1993.

Tim Arnold has served as Colonial Life's chief executive since January 2015.

History

Colonial Life's history traces back to 1929 when company founder Edwin Averyt was working as a bond salesman in Birmingham, Alabama and met with a former University of Alabama classmate who was successful at selling individual accident insurance policies. Averyt later moved to South Carolina to become the regional manager of a firm that sold savings bonds, United Securities Company of Kansas City, Missouri. In 1937, he earned a $2,000 commission. He raised an additional $3,000 from investors and founded Mutual Accident Company the same year. Mutual Accident Company originally sold $1,000 accident policies for $3 annually; policies that were very similar to the policies sold by Averyt's former classmate.