Kemper Corporation is a Chicago-based insurance holding company. It focuses on specialty personal and commercial auto insurance, plus individual life insurance. It serves customers across the United States mainly through independent agents and brokers.
Website: kemper.com
Head office address: 200 East Randolph Street, Suite 3300, Chicago, Illinois 60601
Founded: 1990, as Unitrin, Inc.; adopted the Kemper name in 2011
Company type: public company (NYSE: KMPR)
Business focus: specialty property and casualty insurance and life insurance
Regions served: United States
The Kemper name dates back to 1912. James S. Kemper founded Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company in Chicago that year to insure lumber workers. The corporate entity known today as Kemper Corporation has a separate, more recent history. It began in 1990 in Delaware as Unitrin, Inc., a spinoff of Teledyne. Other key milestones include:
Taken together, these moves mark a shift toward specialty auto and life insurance. Along the way, the company shed operations outside those core lines.
The insurer focuses on specialty auto coverage and individual life products, not broader personal lines. Its main business lines include:
The auto segment distributes through a network of independent agents and brokers. The life segment operates through a dedicated field force of captive career agents who sell and service policies directly with customers.
The firm now operates through two segments, specialty property and casualty insurance and life insurance. That structure follows several years of narrowing its focus. Divestitures such as the Reserve National sale have concentrated resources on specialty auto and life insurance. Kemper holds long-standing agent and broker relationships in both segments.
Kemper says its approach to corporate responsibility centers on an ownership culture. Stated commitments span environmental management, philanthropy, and workforce development. The company describes equal pay and an inclusive, equitable work environment as priorities for its associates. It also points to governance practices meant to build trust with shareholders and other stakeholders.
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