| Date | |
|---|---|
| 1891 | The Great-West Life Assurance Company (Great-West Life) was incorporated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. |
| 1906 | Great-West Life opened its first U.S. sales office in Fargo, North Dakota. |
| 1907 | The company now known as Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was incorporated in Kansas. |
| 1940 | Great-West Life began offering services to tax-advantaged retirement savings plans for U.S. employers under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a). |
| 1962 | The company began offering services to Section 403(b) retirement savings plans for nonprofit organizations. |
| 1973 | A separate U.S. marketing division was established, with offices in Denver, Colorado. |
| 1978 | Great-West Life began offering services to Section 457 deferred compensation plans for public-sector employees in the United States |
| 1979 | The formal process of splitting U.S. and Canadian operations began. |
| 1982 | Great-West Life purchased the company that later became Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company. |
| 1985 | The company began offering services to 401(k) defined contribution (DC) plans for private employers. |
| 1992 | Great-West Life completed the transfer of its U.S. operations to its subsidiary Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company (Great-West). Great-West introduced the Innovative Strategic Investment System (ISIS), a proprietary recordkeeping platform providing retirement plan clients with access to outside mutual funds, a voice response system, and the ability to maintain participant information and process contributions electronically. |
| 1993 | Financial Administrative Services Corporation, or FASCorp (now known as FASCore, LLC), was established as a subsidiary of Great-West to provide recordkeeping and administrative services for retirement plans offered by other financial institutions. |
| 1995 | Great-West ranked as the nation's 38th largest DC recordkeeper.* |
| 2000 | The ownership of Great-West was transferred to GWL&A Financial Inc., a subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco Inc. Great-West ranked as the 12th largest DC recordkeeper.* |
| 2003 | Great-West acquired the 401(k) administration subsidiary EMJAY Corporation and the group retirement business of Federated Insurance Companies. The company rebranded its group retirement business as Empower Retirement . |
| 2004 | EMJAY Corporation, a subsidiary of Great-West, acquired Metavante 401(k) Services, Inc., renaming it EMJAY Retirement Plan Services, Inc. |
| 2006 | Great-West acquired a block of 401(k) and defined benefit plan business from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its affiliates General American Life Insurance Company and New England Life Insurance Company. It also acquired U.S. Bank's bundled, full-service defined contribution business block, primarily 401(k) business. |
*By total participant accounts, including those of institutional and third-party administrator clients, according to Spectrem Group market share rankings.
Empower Retirement and Maxim Lifetime Asset Allocation Series® are registered trademarks and SecureFoundationSM is a service mark of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company. Maxim Series Fund(s) are a wholly owned subsidiary of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, and an affiliate of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York, White Plains, New York, and their subsidiaries and affiliates.