Hartford has called itself the Insurance Capital of the World since the 1800s -- Hartford Fire Insurance (chartered 1810, now part of Hartford Financial Services Group), Aetna (1853), and Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (1866) all still keep their headquarters here, alongside asset managers like Virtus Investment Partners and Goodwin Capital Advisers who grew up managing the float. The industry's own instinct to protect what's valuable predates the actuarial table: in 1687, when England's royal governor demanded Connecticut surrender its colonial charter, the document was hidden inside a giant white oak on Wyllys Hill rather than handed over. The Charter Oak stood until 1856 and outlived the secret it kept long enough that a real insurer, Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company (1931, now a Travelers subsidiary), took its name outright -- the city's founding legend and its signature industry converging on the same word.
Region Stats
Total firms
6
VC / investors
2
Companies
4
Universities
0
Known For
Insurance
Asset Management
Venture Capital
