Why Iowa?
Iowa has long been recognized as a world insurance leader across the industry's life, health, property and casualty, and financial services sectors. Did you know that Des Moines, Iowa earned the nickname of “The Hartford of the West” due to its concentration of insurance companies? However, there are thousands of insurance and finance companies statewide.
The Global Insurance Symposium holds its annual conference every spring in Des Moines, Iowa, offering educational and networking opportunities. The conference has approximately 500 insurance and financial services company executives along with international regulators. To date, there has been representatives from 13 different countries. The Federation of Iowa Insurers is a proud sponsor and voting member of the event! Iowa will continue to showcase itself as an industry innovator year after year.
The Iowa Department of Economic Development Authority along with the Iowa Insurance Division partnered to create Insure Your Future, an internship program targeted at sophomore-level college students to introduce them to Iowa’s insurance industry. Many Federation of Iowa Insurer members participate in the program, understanding the importance to introduce the next generation of our workforce to the insurance industry, boosting Iowa’s career prospects. Insure Your Future will assist in Iowa maintaining favorable growth, with the insurance industry expanding from 2.6% of total state employment in 1990 to 2.9% in 2022.
The Federation of Iowa Insurers engaged Dr. Ernest Goss, Ph.D., to complete an updated Economic Impact Study in 2023 to estimate the impact of Iowa's insurance industry on the State economy, and to measure its importance to the Iowa economy. A few highlights from the study are below, with a full report along with a 1-page fact sheet linked under the "Learn More!" table.
- Due to high productivity, Iowa insurance employees earned a 74.21% salary advantage over the average Iowa worker in 2022, opposed to 67.6% in 2020.
- Between 2019 and 2022, insurance job compensation in Iowa advanced by 16.8%.
- It’s estimated that Iowa insurance industry spending produced $6.6 billion in wages and salaries.
- In 2022, it’s estimated that Iowa’s insurance industry generated $1.1 billion in state and local tax collections, opposed to $821.1 million in 2020.
- Federation of Iowa Insurer member companies continue to invest in Iowa communities, having over 83,700 volunteer hours per year with 4,000 employees volunteering, while also making up nearly 7% of Total Iowa Giving.
- The Iowa Department of Workforce Development reports the insurance and finance industries industry employs 95,000 workers.
- Iowa’s insurance premium tax rate is at 1%, one of the lowest in the nation!
- SF 549 was adopted and signed into law by Governor Reynolds on June 1, 2023. The bill requires Captive Insurance Companies in Iowa to pay a tax on the direct premiums collected or contracted for on policies or contracts written by the captive company. The tax rate is as follows: .97.5% in FY2024; .95% in FY2025; .925% in FY2026 and .9% in FY 2027.