Headquarters Calgary, Canada Number of employees 270 (2012) | Key people Rob Wesseling, COO Founded 1953 | |
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Website www.SovereignGeneral.com [5] Parent organization Co-Operators General Insurance Co. | ||
The Sovereign General Insurance Company is a Canadian owned and operated property and casualty insurer. There are also full-service branches across Canada including; Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.
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Today, The Sovereign has approximately 270 employees operating across the country. The Sovereign operates through a national independent brokerage network.
History
Established in May 1953 as Merit Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Industrial Acceptance Corporation (IAC) and based in Montreal, the company originally focused primarily on personal lines of insurance. By the end of the 1960’s, Merit Insurance had grown to employ almost one hundred staff with branch offices in several cities across Canada. The company moved its operations to Toronto in 1969, where another IAC subsidiary was housed, The Sovereign Life Insurance Company. By 1974, the two companies merged, with Merit Insurance becoming The Sovereign General Insurance Company.
By the late 1970’s a dynamic entrepreneur from Calgary purchased The Sovereign General from IAC and in 1979 its operations were moved to Calgary.
In 1984 The Sovereign changed its strategic direction and began to emphasize commercial lines of insurance, distributing its products solely through independent brokers across Canada. The 1980s would bring more changes to The Sovereign, when in April 1987 it was acquired by The Co-operators, becoming a member of the co-operatively-owned group of insurance and financial services companies.
Today, The Sovereign has over 270 staff operating in six offices across Canada.