<Tr> <Th> Number of employees </Th> <Td> 12,000 (2014) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.newyorklife.com </Td> </Tr> <P> New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the largest mutual life - insurance company in the United States, and one of the largest life insurers in the world, ranking #61 on the 2016 Fortune 500 list, with about $550 billion in total assets under management, and more than $21 billion in surplus and AVR . In 2007, NYLIC achieved the best possible ratings by the four independent rating companies (Standard & Poor's, AM Best, Moody's and Fitch). Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds . </P> <P> The company was founded in 1845 as the Nautilus Insurance Company in New York City, with assets of $17,000 . It was renamed the New York Life Insurance Company in 1849 . Its first headquarters were at 58 Wall Street from 1845 until 1846 at which time they were moved to 29 Wall Street . Subsequent addresses included 68 Wall Street, 106 Broadway, and 112 - 114 Broadway . The first president was James DePeyster Ogden, who served from 1845 until 1847 . The current New York Life headquarters was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and completed in 1928 . The New York Life Building, at 51 Madison Avenue, was constructed during the presidency of Darwin P. Kingsley . As with other early insurance companies in the U.S., in its early years (1846--1848), at the behest of its Southern agents, the company insured the lives of slaves for their owners . These policies were discontinued at the direction of the Trustees on April 19, 1848 . The total claims paid on slaves' lives totaled $1,050 . Nautilus sold 485 slaveholder life insurance policies during a two - year period in the 1840s . Their trustees voted to end the sale of such policies 15 years before the Emancipation Proclamation . </P>

Is new york life a mutual insurance company