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Reliance Insurance Company

Reliance Insurance Co.
Insurance company (main company)
Industry Insurance
Founder Group of fire and hose companies
Headquarters Philadelphia, Pa., USA
Key people

Saul Phillip Steinberg (Former Chairman & CEO)


Robert Steinberg
Services Insurance
Number of employees
About 200 (2009)
Subsidiaries See Companies below
Website [1]

Saul Phillip Steinberg (Former Chairman & CEO)

Reliance Insurance Company, now officially known as Reliance Insurance Company [in Liquidation], was founded in Philadelphia in 1817 and has undergone numerous corporate makeovers in the intervening years. As of October 3, 2001, the company has been in liquidation.

Reliance was founded in 1817, officially incorporating in 1820, as the Fire Association of Philadelphia, organized by 5 hose and 11 engine fire companies. Upon inception, Reliance became the nation's first successful association of volunteer fire departments, which beforehand had been independent of one another and often engaged in inefficient competition, which at times extended to the destruction of rivals' equipment and the assault of rival firefighters. In addition to underwriting fire insurance, the association served as mediator between its member engine and hose companies to resolve the problems of the past. The association's first policy was bought by Samuel Bleight for his three-story building. One lasting symbol of the company adopted at the outset was the fire mark featuring a fireplug with a coiling hose and the initials F.A. on both sides.

The association was granted a charter by the governor of Pennsylvania on March 27, 1820, and wrote 29 policies that year. By 1832 the association wrote 583 policies and by 1844 it had 44 member companies. In 1850 it had a $100,000 surplus, all of which was lost by the Great Fire of Philadelphia that year. The trustees, however, paid all resulting claims, which brought them goodwill and led to further expansion. In 1871 the city of Philadelphia created its own fire department. In response, the trustees chose to continue as a stock company under a new charter, whereby they became solely an insurance company and began writing policies outside of Philadelphia.

The business continued to grow over the ensuing decades with the development of a countrywide field of agents, expanded forms of coverage including automobile insurance, and the formation of various subsidiaries, one of which was Reliance Insurance Company founded in the 1920s. In 1950 the association merged its subsidiaries into the parent company, and on January 1, 1958, The Fire Association of Philadelphia officially changed its name to Reliance Insurance Company. The company's growth continued through acquisition and the establishment of subsidiaries. The General Casualty Company of Wisconsin was bought in 1956 and United Pacific Insurance Company in May 1967, providing the company with a solid presence in the Midwest and West respectively. Eureka Insurance Company was started in 1959. Its name was changed to Planet Insurance Company in 1963, and beginning in 1976, wrote Reliance's commercial mass-marketing business.


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