Foremost Insurance is a Grand Rapids, Michigan specialty insurer founded in 1952 that pioneered mobile home coverage and today writes manufactured homes, RVs, motorcycles, and boats as part of the Farmers Insurance Group.
The company was founded on June 12, 1952 in Grand Rapids, Michigan to serve mobile home owners, an underwritten segment that traditional carriers largely avoided at the time. Foremost wrote what is generally credited as the first mobile home insurance policy in the United States, and by 1961 it sold coverage in every state except Hawaii.
Today Foremost specializes in non-standard and niche personal lines that mainstream carriers often decline: manufactured and mobile homes, motor homes, travel trailers, specialty dwellings such as seasonal and vacant properties, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, boats, and personal watercraft. The company reports insuring more than one million mobile home residences across the United States, anchoring its position as the dominant carrier in that segment.
In March 2000, the Farmers Exchanges acquired Foremost Corporation of America, making Foremost a member of the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies. Farmers itself is a trade name of Farmers Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services. Since 2009, Foremost has served as Farmers' independent-agency face, distributing specialty products through independent producers rather than the captive Farmers agency channel.