Aflac Incorporated

Aflac Incorporated is a supplemental insurance provider headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. The company built its business on payroll-deducted policies that pay cash benefits directly to policyholders when a covered medical event occurs. It operates through two main units, Aflac US and Aflac Japan, and is closely tied to its long-running Aflac Duck advertising campaign.

Website: aflac.com

Head office address: 1932 Wynnton Road, Columbus, Georgia 31999

Founded: November 17, 1955, Columbus, Georgia

Company type: public company (NYSE: AFL)

Business focus: supplemental health and life insurance

Regions served: United States and Japan

History of Aflac Incorporated

John Amos and his brothers Paul and Bill founded the company in 1955 as American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus. It started in a six-room office with 16 employees, and it grew by selling coverage for costs that standard health plans left out. Key milestones include:

• 1955: Amos and his brothers found American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus, working out of a six-room office in downtown Columbus
• 1957: the company pioneers a cancer insurance policy, giving it an early niche in supplemental coverage
• 1964: it adopts worksite “cluster selling” and becomes American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus
• 1974: the insurer expands into Japan and lists on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker AFL
• 1989: the company officially adopts “Aflac” as its trading name
• 2000: it launches the Aflac Duck advertising campaign, later a fixture of US and Japanese pop culture
• 2009: it acquires Continental American Insurance Company, now branded as Aflac Group Insurance
• 2018: the company converts its Japan branch into a subsidiary, Aflac Life Insurance Japan
• 2021: it forms Tier One Insurance Company to sell coverage directly to consumers outside the workplace

Those decades of expansion turned a small regional insurer into the leading supplemental health insurer in the US, with a parallel leadership position in Japan’s cancer and medical insurance market.

What does Aflac offer?

The company sells supplemental coverage that pays cash benefits on top of whatever major medical insurance covers. It markets its policies mainly through the workplace, with premiums paid by payroll deduction at no direct cost to employers. Core lines include:

• accident insurance
• cancer insurance
• critical illness insurance
• short-term disability insurance
• hospital indemnity insurance
• life insurance
• dental and vision insurance

The insurer added its dental and vision lineup through the 2019 acquisition of what is now branded Aflac Dental and Vision, rounding out a product set built around gaps that standard health coverage leaves open.

Position in the market

The company operates through two reporting segments, Aflac US and Aflac Japan, each licensed and regulated in its own market. In the US, it positions itself as the leading provider of supplemental health insurance sold at the worksite. In Japan, its subsidiary Aflac Life Insurance Japan holds a leading position in individual cancer and medical policies in force.

It also maintains an office in Northern Ireland that supports the US business’s digital operations and policy servicing. This two-market structure, concentrated in the US and Japan, has stayed consistent since the company’s move overseas in the 1970s.

Community involvement

The company has funded pediatric cancer research and treatment for three decades through the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, established in 1995. It also created My Special Aflac Duck, a robotic companion introduced in 2018 to comfort children with cancer during treatment. The company expanded the program in 2022 to include children with sickle cell disease and blood disorders.