The consumer's dictionary of terms is different today than it was 25 years ago
While clearly outnumbered in these statistics, 6 of the top 10 insurers ranked by assets in 1988 were mutual carriers and accounted for 70 percent of the assets of the top 10. Of those 6 large mutual insurers dominating the top 10 list by assets in 1988, only New York Life and Northwestern Mutual retain their mutual status; the rest have demutualized and, in some cases, merged with other insurers. At the same time, however, there is an expectation that an insurance company run for and on behalf of its policyholders is likely to make decisions that are more focused on its policy owners than those insurers whose first obligation is to their shareholders. With the first demutualizations occurring only since the inflation/interest spike of the late 1970s and early '80s, there is not yet much evidence to suggest which business organization format will continue to deliver the most value. But a new wisdom has presumed itself on the industry today, namely, the notion that the only way for an insurance company to survive among highly competitive financial services peers is to have access to outside capital and become part of the food chain, wherein some will eat and others will be eaten. For many years, companies selling participating life insurance policies (where policyholders participate in profits of the insurer that are not otherwise needed to run the operation or bolster financial reserves) could point with great pride to the fact that their dividend scales increased over the years and delivered substantial value to policyholders who continued to maintain those policies. Indeed, many of the traditionally trained life insurance agents today began their careers with mutual life insurers, and were often taught that "mutual was the way God intended life insurance."