The Capital of American Insurance

For most of the twentieth century, Des Moines was quietly one of the most powerful financial cities in the United States, not because of banking or Wall Street activity, but because of insurance. Des Moines has long been called the Hartford of the West for its concentration of insurance company headquarters, and it was home to some of the largest life and property insurers on the continent.

The industry took root here for reasons both geographic and regulatory. Iowa offered a stable and predictable insurance regulatory environment, which made it a stable and predictable environment for companies that dealt, at bottom, in risk. A state that took regulation seriously was a state where an insurance company could plan across decades.

Principal Financial Group, founded in Des Moines in eighteen seventy-nine as the Bankers Life Association, grew from a one-room office into one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world. Meredith Corporation, also headquartered here, publishes Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

At its peak, the industry employed thousands of people in the greater Des Moines area. The glass and concrete towers along Grand Avenue and on the west side of downtown were, in large part, insurance buildings. Companies including Equitable of Iowa, Employers Mutual, and EMC Insurance Companies maintained major operations here for generations.

The industry has consolidated significantly since the nineteen nineties, but Des Moines remains a significant insurance and financial services center. The skyscrapers on the skyline still tell that story if you know what you are looking at.