Prudential Overview: Prudential Financial (corporate parent of The Prudential Insurance Company of America) is a famous name in insurance, founded in 1875 in Newark, NJ. Prudential’s principal lines of business include:
- Life Insurance
- Annuities
- Retirement Accounts and Plans
- Mutual Funds
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Real Estate Brokerage
Prudential also owns a 38% share of Wachovia Securities. In 1981, Prudential acquired securities brokerage Bache & Co., which it renamed Prudential Bache and later Prudential Securities. In 2003, Prudential and Wachovia combined their respective retail securities brokerage operations into a joint venture named Wachovia Securities.
Size: Prudential reports these figures for June, 2008:
- Total Employees = over 40,000 (December, 2007)
- Prudential Agents = 2,446
- International Life Planners = 6,179
- Gibraltar Life Advisors (Japan) = 5,899
- Assets Under Management = $638 billion
- Customers = 50 million
Positives:Prudential articulates a strategy of focusing on a relatively limited set of the most attractive products and countries. The Prudential name and its Rock of Gibraltar logo are both iconic corporate identifiers in the U.S. Prudential receives AA ratings from S&P and equivalent ratings from the other major rating firms.
Negatives: While Prudential touts high marks in several surveys of the best places to work, like most large insurers it is generally highly bureaucratic and hierarchical.
