John C. Tyler and Thomas E. Leavey, the founders of Farmers Insurance knew from personal experience that farmers and ranchers experienced fewer risks with their vehicles and were entitled to preferred insurance rates.
In 1928, Farmers was launched with Tyler and Leavey putting up their own money and going farm to farm to gain their first policies. They operated out of a one-room office in downtown Los Angeles.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Farmers was one of the few insurance companies able to pay customers’ claims in cash instead of I O Us.
During the 1950s Farmers continued to grow and expand and acquired the New World Life Company of Seattle. In the 1960s Farmers became the first major insurance organization to offer a monthly payment plan that wasn’t a finance plan and that didn’t charge customers any interest.
The British American Tobacco Company acquired 100 percent of Farmers Group, Inc. in 1988 and in 1998, Farmers Group, Inc. was acquired by Zurich Financial Services.
In 2021, The Farmers Exchanges and Farmers Group, Inc. completed it’s joint acquisition of MetLife’s home and auto business.