Insurance company : Erie

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Insurance company : Erie 

Insurance company : Erie 

A property and casualty insurance provider with its headquarters in Erie, Pennsylvania, Erie Insurance provides life, business, and car insurance through a network of independent insurance brokers. Based on total revenue for the 2020 fiscal year, Erie Insurance Group is placed 347th on the 2021 Fortune 500 ranking of the largest American firms.

With over 6 million active policies and operations in 12 states and the District of Columbia, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, ERIE is rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best.

Additionally, it owns the naming rights to the Erie Insurance Arena in the Pennsylvanian city of Erie.

When H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford, two salespeople for the Pennsylvania Indemnity Exchange, decided to start their own insurance company, Erie Insurance Exchange, they did so in 1925. With the aid of a handwritten business plan, the two persuaded 90 investors to invest in three months and twenty days, raising $31,000 to launch their own car insurance firm.

The Erie Insurance Exchange began conducting business as an automobile insurer on April 20, 1925, after receiving a license from the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Erie Indemnity Firm was established as the managing company and Erie Insurance Exchange was established as a reciprocal. The cost of the premium per vehicle per year was $34.

The company's co-founder H.O. Hirt developed the slogan "The ERIE is Above all in SERvIcE," with the letters "E-R-I-E" elevated out of the word service, in an effort to build a business based on service. Even the company's cofounders would answer the phone when customers called the company on collect calls. Sam P. Black Jr., the company's first adjuster and full-time claims manager, had a phone extension put in his room at the neighborhood YMCA to provide policyholders with 24-hour assistance.

The "Super Standard Auto Policy," developed by Erie Insurance in 1934, served as a template for other insurance providers all over the nation.  The policy had unique benefits like "Drive Other Car" coverage and a waiver of collision deductibles for two ERIE-insured vehicles, which were not common in other policies during the 1930s. Later, the business branched out into life, business, and home insurance. 

Up until 1928, the business only had an office in Erie before expanding to Pittsburgh. Its influence grew even farther as it opened a branch campus in Silver Spring, Maryland, outside of Pennsylvania, in 1953.