Auto Insurance » Insurance Companies » PEMCO Insurance

PEMCO Insurance

Enter Your ZIP Code

PEMCO started off differently from other insurance providers. Its founder, Robert J. Handy, was a journalist and a math teacher by profession. Handy supplemented his meager income by selling insurance for a friend’s general insurance firm. In 1949, he established the Seattle Teachers Credit Union, with the goal of helping teachers get car loans. Handy realized the need for affordable insurance for public employees, which resulted in the creation of the Public Employees Mutual Insurance Company (PEMIC). The provider offers a wide range of policies from residential to fire and burglary coverage. It also offers theft and auto insurance. In 1989, the acronym PEMIC was shortened into PMIC.

Because the state imposed a $400,000 minimum in capital for an insurance company, Handy founded another company, the Public Employees Mutual Casualty Company (PEMCO). By selling bonds for PEMCO to fellow educators, Handy was able to buy guarantee bonds issued by PEMCO.

Wanting to venture into liability insurance, PEMCO was incorporated in 1950. The company remained virtually the same until 1977 when the state laws were changed, allowing liability and property insurance to be offered by a single provider. PEMCO then merged with PEMIC until Handy established another company, PEMCO Life Insurance Company, in 1963. The latter offered affordable life insurance to credit union members.

By 1970, Handy saw the benefits of having a bank as part of a credit union. The next year, he acquired a state charter for Teachers State Bank until it changed its name to Evergreen Bank in 1980.

PEMCO has remained devoted and dedicated to serve the needs of its core clients for over 50 years. At present, the company still provides quality service to the same spectrum of customers it dealt with from its conception.