Northwestern Mutual is a U.S. mutual company that provides financial planning through its advisors, along with life, disability and long-term care insurance, income annuities, brokerage and investment advisory services, and private wealth management. It reports more than 5.1 million clients and more than 8,000 financial advisors and professionals, and says it has been doing this work for over 165 years.
As a mutual company, Northwestern Mutual has no shareholders and answers to its policyowners, returning profits to them as dividends. It says it has paid dividends every year since 1872 and expects to pay $10.4 billion in dividends in 2027, noting that dividends are reviewed annually and are not guaranteed. It reports holding the highest available financial strength ratings awarded to any U.S. life insurer from all four major rating agencies, and its broker-dealer, Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, ranks among the top ten U.S. independent broker-dealers by 2024 revenue, per Financial Planning. The company's own history recounts an 1859 train collision near Johnson Creek, Wisconsin, that killed two policyowners: the $3,500 in claims exceeded what the two-year-old company had on hand, so its president, Samuel S. Daggett, and fellow trustees personally borrowed the money to pay them.