What it does: Genworth Financial, Inc. is a leading insurance holding company committed to helping families achieve the dream of homeownership and address the financial challenges of aging through its leadership positions in mortgage insurance and long-term care insurance.
Mission: Genworth Financial, Inc. is a leading insurance holding company committed to helping families achieve the dream of homeownership and address the financial challenges of aging through its leadership positions in mortgage insurance and long-term care insurance.
Size and presence: Around 10,000 employees all over the world.
Best known for Genworth strives to enhance the culture of our company and the general community. We seek to build a community that values the inclusion of diversity and be a company of choice and opportunity for all, a beacon of diversity locally and nationally
The good bits: Genworth promotes and provides an excellent work/life balance.
The not-so-good bits: Genworth currently has an uncertain future.
A.G. McIlwaine was the company’s first president. Begun by two dozen Petersburg investors, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia offered its first policies to local customers before expanding to Richmond, Virginia. Under general agent F.W. Chamberlayne, the Richmond Department attracted a large number of new clients. Within the first decade, the client base expanded beyond the South.
As the Life Insurance Company of Virginia grew, the headquarters were moved to Richmond, Virginia. By the turn of the 20th century, the company offered products through different divisions, The “Ordinary Division” of the company offered whole life annuity options and related products, the “Intermediate Division” offered term life products, endowment policies, and limited payment policies, and an industrial division offered inexpensive products.
Colloquially known as “Life of Virginia”, the company expanded its portfolio in the 20th century. Beginning with its first annuities business written in 1928, the company grew to include different mortgage insurance, lifestyle protection, and long-term care products and options.
Over the following decades, the company has undergone several major acquisitions, beginning in 1986 when Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance for $557 million, which became AON Corporation the following year. In 1995, almost a decade after the acquisition, GE Capital, the financial services unit of General Electric, announced its plan to buy most of AON Corporation’s life insurance business, including Life of Virginia.
Under GE Capital, Life of Virginia became a part of GE Financial Assurance Holdings, Inc., before becoming GE Capital Assurance Company. The company was incorporated as Genworth Financial, Inc. on October 23, 2003, formed out of several GE Capital insurance companies. On May 25, 2004, Genworth became a publicly-traded company in the largest initial public offering (IPO) of 2004.
GE sold its remaining stake in the company in 2006 for an estimated $2.8 billion. In 2007, another GE Capital insurance company, First Colony Life Insurance Company, merged with Genworth Life and Annuity Assurance Company, one of the entities within Genworth Financial, Inc, also in 2007, Sun Life Financial bought the Employee Benefits Group (EBG) of Genworth Financial, putting Sun Life Financial on the top market for Employee Benefits programs. As of December 31, 2011, Genworth Financial, Inc. had more than 15 million customers in more than 25 countries.
In 2009, Genworth held an IPO for its Canadian subsidiary, Genworth MI Canada, on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising $850 million.
On April 1, 2013, Genworth announced the completion of a legal entity reorganization, with the result being the creation of a new ultimate holding company. This restructuring separated the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries from the overall firm.
On October 24, 2016, China Oceanwide Holdings Group agreed to buy Genworth Financial Inc. for $2.7 billion. However, on April 6, 2021, Genworth terminated the acquisition due to China Oceanwide's inability to finalize the acquisition.
In May 2020, National Australia Bank has terminated its deal to acquire insurance for homebuyers from Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia. The industry is vulnerable specifically to the anticipated increase of mortgage borrowers that are unable to reimburse their loans because of work cuts, with Genworth taking a $181.8 million write-down this month of expectation of further mortgages going wrong. On 30 June 2020, Genworth Financial, Inc. confirmed that it is going ahead with proposals to resolve its short-term commitments and debt responsibilities, while China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (Oceanwide) is finalizing the investment strategy for Genworth's takeover.
In July 2020, Genworth Financial, Inc. has confirmed the retirement of Kelly L. Groh as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Succeeding Groh will be Dan Sheehan, executive vice president, and chief investment officer of Genworth, but she will stay with Genworth for some time in an advisory capacity to ensure the transition operates smoothly.
We empower our employees to embrace their differences and find comradery in their commonalities. We offer all colleagues the opportunity to develop, network, learn and celebrate each other’s backgrounds and interests by joining any of our 18 different Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Connection Points (CPs). Each group has its mission that contributes to creating an inclusive work environment and is open to all colleagues, whether or not they identify with the scope of the group itself. We believe our ERGs and CPs play a critical role in creating allyship, education, resources, and positive change for our employees by our employees; they are a fundamental part of Genworth's identity.
At Genworth, we are wholeheartedly committed to creating an inclusive work environment where everyone feels safe to be their truest, most authentic selves. We understand that true inclusivity is a journey and we continue to work hard every step of the way to ensure Genworth is a great place to work for all colleagues. Through our strong connections to our communities, we have developed relationships and initiatives with diverse organizations that support our desire to uplift and provide equitable opportunities to customers, community members, and prospective employees. We have also implemented several training initiatives and practices to help our employees become as inclusive and self-aware as possible. We are proud to be working toward a future where the diversity of our colleagues and leadership is entirely reflective of our stakeholders and the customers we serve.
Genworth is a leading provider of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) in Australia. We also provide tailored risk and capital management solutions for lender customers in the Australian residential mortgage market that complement our traditional LMI product offering.
LMI facilitates residential mortgage lending by transferring risk from lenders to LMI providers, predominantly for high loan-to-value ratio residential mortgage loans.
Genworth believes the provision of LMI to lenders has contributed to comparatively high levels of Australian homeownership and residential mortgage loan accessibility, supporting the housing market in Australia.
Genworth has lender partnerships across major banks, non-major banks, mutuals, and non-bank lenders. Many of these relationships have spanned decades.
LMI has been an important part of the Australian residential mortgage lending market since it was introduced by the Australian Government in 1965. Since our inception Genworth has taken many forms, evolving from HLIC, a government entity, to GE, one of the world's most innovative companies, and then to Genworth.
We offer a competitive medical benefits package covering the following:
These benefits encourage preventative care and wellness for employees:
We encourage employees to take advantage of our wellness programs:
We provide employees and their loved ones with financial resources when they need them most:
We offer employees several options for retirement planning:
Genworth Financial’s Tuition Reimbursement Program reimburses employees for expenses incurred while pursuing an undergraduate degree, graduate degree, and certain types of certification or single educational courses.
Our Student Loan Repayment plan allows for employees who have completed approved degrees within the last five years, monthly loan payments paid directly to the loan administrator.
Our employees work hard, and we encourage a healthy work-life balance. These benefits are designed for that purpose:
Genworth recognizes that climate change poses significant potential risks to the environment, the global economy, and human health and well-being. We also recognize that human activity contributes to global warming.
Genworth’s Sustainability Committee consists of representatives from across the business to support adherence to our Environmental Policy in our everyday processes and procedures. We are committed to reducing impacts on the environment associated with our business activities and to implementing best practices to support environmental sustainability.
As a financial security company, we make promises to customers that often span decades. Sustainability of lifestyle requires a sustainable environment in which to live. We believe that a responsible approach to helping preserve the environment is critical to building trust and creating long-term value for all of our stakeholders – including consumers, distribution partners, employees, and investors.
Here are some examples of our environmental policy in action: