Since the very beginning, Foremost has strived to offer the insurance products our customers want. We created a passionate culture of quick-thinking and decisiveness that continues to help us create coverages, find new markets, and develop superior ways to serve our customers.
Foremost Insurance Company was founded in 1952 by a group of individuals with a novel idea: to insure mobile homes. At that time, the mobile home industry was in its infancy. Families grew at a record pace thanks to the “Baby Boom” and housing was in short supply. Mobile homes proved to be an inexpensive solution to the housing shortage, but few companies insured these “homes on wheels.”
What started as a three-person operation in a one-room office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, quickly grew to a staff of eleven. In five years, we were doing business in 35 states. But mobile homes were just the start.
The 1960s: Growth and Innovation
As we entered the 1960s, Foremost continued to grow. We wrote our one-millionth insurance policy in 1966, and our Mobilowners Mobile Home program was the insurance policy of choice for mobile home owners in the United States. We remained true to our Michigan roots though, as we moved our headquarters twice in Grand Rapids to accommodate the growing number of employees.
We also began to focus on safety and commissioned a study to determine the effects of strong winds on mobile homes. Done in conjunction with the University of Michigan, the study proved that mobile homes could be protected from damaging winds if they were anchored or tied-down to the ground. This lead to a national public relations campaign: “Wise up – tie down,” and a number of states enacted mandatory tie-down laws. This proactive campaign also proved to be effective during our claims responses to all of the strong hurricanes that hit the gulf and east coasts throughout the deca
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