About Us

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Our Story

In the 1870s across Wisconsin, farmers and businessmen organized town mutual insurance companies to protect themselves from financial loss if their farms, businesses, or homes were lost due to fire. The key goals of these mutuals were to maintain local control, provide excellent service and keep rates affordable. As mutual companies, they were (and still are) owned by and directed by the very people who purchased their insurance policies. For more than a century, these companies have kept their focus on the “mutual” interest they have with their policyholders.

In 1875 and 1876, in the townships of Berlin and Stettin (which included the city of Wausau), two of Wisconsin’s first insurance companies were created. Berlin Farmers (Wausau) Mutual and Stettin Mutual Fire were organized for the sole purpose of helping their neighbors in hard times.

To better compete in the modern age, yet keep their local service advantage, Stettin Mutual and Wausau Mutual combined their strengths in 1998 as Wausau-Stettin Mutual Insurance Company. Then, in January 2011, we updated our name to Mutual of Wausau and we became a full domestic mutual insurance company. That change allowed us to offer more types of insurance to our customers and to expand the area we service. Later in 2011, Manitowoc Mutual joined with us to further add to our rich history and spread our risk throughout a larger territory.

On January 1, 2015, we teamed up with our affiliate company, Homestead Mutual from Larsen, Wisconsin to form the “Mutual of Wausau Group”. This affiliation includes an Inter-Company Risk Pooling Agreement, which helps to further spread our risk throughout an even larger territory. Homestead retained their mutual status, home office, staff, and agents. While still an independent mutual company, they gain strength and efficiency by working in partnership with Mutual of Wausau.

Today, as one of the oldest and strongest mutual insurance companies in Wisconsin — our experienced and dedicated network of independent agents now serves policyholders throughout Wisconsin.

In all these years, we haven’t lost sight of the mutual idea. In fact, we’re still in business for one reason…to protect the mutual interests of those who own our company — our policyholders.