PEMCO is a lot like you. A little different.
What makes PEMCO a little different from other insurance carriers?
PEMCO is resolved to put its customers first. A value that we share at A & M Insurance®. They have a saying at PEMCO “that everyone at PEMCO shares a commitment to doing the right thing.” It is this commitment that makes us confident in representing this locally-based company that is dedicated to Northwest residents.
PEMCO is different –they know you because they are you. Their company employees “drive the same roads, weather the same storms, share the same neighborhoods, attend the same schools, and support the same charities.”
What else makes PEMCO different? PEMCO is a mutual company. What does that mean? It means “they are owned by their customers – not stockholders – so they serve you, not Wall Street.”46
Company History
PEMCO is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. PEMCO currently has about 650 employees, and its current president and chief executive officer is Stan W. McNaughton, the son of Stanley O. McNaughton, who served as PEMCO’s president from 1970 until his death in 1998.
PEMCO was founded in 1949 by Robert J. Handy, a Seattle journalism and math teacher. Handy had first purposed to insure only teachers who were members of the Seattle Teachers Credit Union that he founded in 1939, which later became the School Employees Credit Union of Washington. Handy was one of the first to take advantage of the Washington legislature that was passed in 1936 allowing credit unions to be established in Washington state. His idea was to “create a financial institution with a heart.”
At the time Handy supplemented his income by working for an insurance agency that was owned by a friend. He was able to sell auto insurance to educators who came to the credit union for car loans. In 1949, Handy founded Public Employees Mutual Insurance Company (PEMIC). In 1950, the company was incorporated to become PEMCO, the Public Employees Mutual Casualty Company. PEMCO’s deep roots in education remain a powerful part of its culture and community outreach to this day.
PEMCO eventually expanded to offering insurance to all Washington state residents and then more recently to all Oregon state residents. PEMCO offers home, fire, renters, condo and burglary insurance, boat insurance and automobile collision, comprehensive, and theft insurance. To this day PEMCO offers a special educator discount.
We are proud to represent PEMCO a company with such a rich local Seattle history.
What do PEMCO Customers have to say?
Check out some PEMCO Reviews. 83% of PEMCO auto customers would recommend PEMCO to their friends or family. 94% of PEMCO home customers would recommend PEMCO. WOW, that speaks volumes.
- In 2019 for the seventh year in a row, PEMCO celebrated receiving the JD POWER Study Award: “Highest Customer Satisfaction Among Auto Insurers in the Northwest Region. Visit jdpower.com/awards.
- Forbes 2022 America’s Best Insurance Companies. Northwest-only PEMCO outperformed national companies in categories like general satisfaction, price, customer service, and customer recommendations. We captured the No. 1 spot for auto insurance and the No. 5 position for pet insurance. Forbes relied on independent surveys of more than 16,000 U.S. citizens with at least one insurance policy to determine company rankings. See the Forbes article: America’s Best Insurance Companies 2022 (forbes.com).
- WalletHub: Washington’s Most Affordable Car Insurance. WalletHub, a national personal finance site dedicated to helping people make smart financial choices, named PEMCO as most affordable among Washington auto insurers for drivers in five categories: good drivers, young drivers, older drivers, and even people with a speeding ticket or an at-fault accident. Note: For ranking consistency, WalletHub compared all companies using the state-minimum required coverages; however, we encourage members to choose limits that protect them more fully. See the updated WalletHub report.
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