Nationwide Mutual Insurance CompanyVerified Employer
Nationwide: Premier mutual insurance company since 1926. Offers diverse insurance and financial products with a strong customer-centric focus in the U.S.
Nationwide: Premier mutual insurance company since 1926. Offers diverse insurance and financial products with a strong customer-centric focus in the U.S.
Global Headcount
27,000
Actuarial Team
~335
Headquarters
Columbus, OH
“Fortune 500 mutual insurer with dual P&C and Financial Services actuarial tracks, offering both CAS and SOA pathways from its Columbus, Ohio headquarters.”
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with regional headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona and Des Moines, Iowa. Founded in 1926 as the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company to serve Ohio farmers, the company changed its name to Nationwide Insurance in 1955 and has grown into one of the largest insurance and financial services organizations in the United States. Nationwide is a mutual company — owned by its policyholders, not public shareholders — and is ranked No. 72 on the 2025 Fortune 500 list with approximately 24,000 employees and over $150 billion in total investments as of 2024.
Nationwide's product portfolio spans personal and commercial property & casualty insurance (auto, home, farm, commercial), life insurance, annuities, retirement plans (both public and private sector), mutual funds, pet insurance, excess & surplus lines, and specialty employer benefits. The company distributes through independent agents (having transitioned away from exclusive agency in recent years) as well as through financial professionals and plan sponsors. Nationwide Financial Services, once partially publicly traded, was fully reabsorbed by the mutual parent in 2009.
Recent strategic activity signals growth: in 2025, Nationwide closed a $1.25 billion acquisition of Allstate's employer stop loss business, expanded its specialty and E&S lines, and acquired reinsurance renewal rights from Markel Insurance. The company has also invested in insurtech, including a $20 million investment in Micruity and an AI-powered virtual home inspection partnership with Chrp.
State Farm
Fellow top-5 mutual P&C insurer headquartered in the Midwest (Bloomington, IL), similar scale and mutual structure
State Farm is larger and more concentrated in personal lines; Nationwide offers broader product diversity across P&C and financial services, giving actuaries more career optionality.
Erie Insurance
Regional mutual P&C insurer, smaller scale, strong culture reputation
Erie offers a more intimate, stable environment but with less product diversity; Nationwide provides Fortune 500 scale and multiple practice areas.
Liberty Mutual
Large mutual P&C insurer with both personal and commercial lines, similar scale
Liberty Mutual is more Boston-centric and has a larger global/specialty operation; Nationwide is Columbus-based with a stronger financial services/retirement arm.
USAA
Large mutual insurer with strong P&C and financial services operations
USAA is San Antonio-based and member-restricted (military families); Nationwide serves a broader market with more diverse product lines.
Principal Financial Group
Des Moines-based insurer with strong retirement/financial services actuarial operations, overlapping office location
Principal is more focused on retirement and asset management; Nationwide offers dual P&C and financial services tracks for more career flexibility.
Nationwide occupies a distinctive position for actuarial candidates: it is one of the few employers where you can build a career in either P&C (CAS track) or financial services (SOA track) — or potentially both — within a single organization. The mutual structure provides long-term stability without public-market pressure, and the Fortune 500 scale means robust exam support infrastructure and clear career ladders. Choose Nationwide over pure P&C carriers if you value optionality across practice areas and want exposure to financial services. Choose Nationwide over consulting if you want to be embedded in a single insurer's operations with deeper product knowledge. Choose a consulting firm or specialty carrier if you want faster compensation growth, cutting-edge analytics tools, or coast-city lifestyle. The Columbus headquarters is a consideration — cost of living is favorable relative to major metros, but the actuarial talent market is relatively concentrated around Nationwide itself, which limits local external mobility (though remote work is mitigating this).
