Aflac, licensed as American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus, sells supplemental health and life insurance in the United States and Japan. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia.

In the United States, Aflac is known for its policies, which pay cash benefits when a policyholder has a covered accident or sickness. Most of Aflac’s policies are individually underwritten and distributed through its independent agents.

Since 2000, the company’s identity has become more widely recognized, as the result of commercials featuring the Aflac Duck, who frustratedly quacks the company’s name to unsuspecting prospective policyholders.

History
The company was founded by three brothers, John, Paul, and Bill Amos, in Columbus, Georgia, in 1955 as American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus (not to be confused with American Family Insurance). In 1964 the company’s corporate name was changed to American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus, better known today as Aflac. The company had 6,426 policyholders in 1956.

American Family Life pioneered cancer insurance in 1958. Beginning in 1964 the company decided to focus sales on worksite settings. By 2003, more than 98 percent of the company’s policies in the United States were issued on a payroll-deduction basis, making the company a leader in that sales approach.

In 1973, Aflac established a holding company, the American Family Corporation. The company’s 1990 adoption of the “Aflac” acronym set it apart from the many other insurance firms that include the word “American” in their names. (The official insurer company name is still “American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus.”)

In 2005, the logo was changed to incorporate a duck character, which is prominently featured in the company’s advertising
Businesses
Aflac operates in the United States and Japan (where the term “American Family” is still used in commercials). Aflac U.S. total new annualized premium sales were slightly down, 0.4 percent, in 2008 to $1.551 billion, according to the company’s 2008 annual report. In Japan, for the year, total new annualized premium sales were up slightly to ¥114.692 billion, again according to the company’s 2008 annual report.

Aflac’s worldwide headquarters and corporate offices are located in an 18-story tower east of downtown Columbus, Georgia.

At the end of 2008, the corporation’s total assets were more than $79 billion, and Aflac insurance products provided protection to more than 40 million people worldwide. The company is the largest provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States and the largest insurance company overall in Japan, when measured by individual insurance policies in force. Aflac launched a campaign in 2001 to promote their first accident policy in Japan, which The Wall Street Journal rated as one of the “ten most effective campaigns of 2000.”

The company now offers several types of insurance policies in the United States, including the following:

Accident
Cancer/Specified Disease
Short-Term Disability
Hospital Intensive Care
Hospital Confinement Indemnity
Hospital Confinement Sickness Indemnity
Long-Term Care
Specified Health Event
Dental
Vision
Term Life
Whole Life
Juvenile Life (Term to Age 25)
Aflac also offers unreimbursed medical and dependent day care flexible spending accounts