SunAmerica

SunAmerica's modern story is often told through the transformation led by Eli Broad. Public biographies note that in 1971 Broad acquired Sun Life Insurance Company of America, a Baltimore-based insurer founded in 1890, and repositioned it into SunAmerica as a retirement-savings and annuity powerhouse.[1][2] The company later went public in 1989, reflecting the scale of the annuity and retirement opportunity it had captured.[2]

As the U.S. shifted from traditional pensions toward individual retirement accounts and defined contribution plans, SunAmerica leaned into products designed to turn long-term saving into lifetime income, a strategic bet strengthened by demographic tailwinds and the rise of professional financial distribution.[1] Investopedia highlights SunAmerica's role as a major annuity marketer in this era.[1]

In 1998, Broad sold SunAmerica to American International Group (AIG) in a headline deal that underscored how valuable retirement platforms had become in the late 1990s.[1][2] More broadly, the history shows how carriers that identified the retirement-income market early could command premium valuations, especially when they paired product design with national distribution. Navigating changing tax rules and interest-rate regimes, SunAmerica's opportunity was spotting the retirement-savings shift before it became obvious to the broader market.[1][3] A recurring theme in the sources is strategic timing: SunAmerica scaled as the retirement market expanded, then became attractive acquisition material for a larger global insurer seeking U.S. retirement reach.

Sources: [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunamerica.asp ; [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Broad ; [3] https://www.company-histories.com/SunAmerica-Inc-Company-History.html