V, the leading mutual insurer, has set up a joint-stock company, though not a publicly traded one.

ECONOMIST: Demutualisation in Germany

Secondly, Halifax has extended its reach in the long-term savings market by acquiring the sales force and unit-linked business of Equitable Life, the troubled mutual life insurer.

ECONOMIST: Bank mergers

On February 3rd Standard Life, Europe's biggest mutual life-insurer, reduced bonuses for the third time in a year.

ECONOMIST: European insurers

Miguel and Linda Delgado created a fake entity to hide staff at their San Antonio, Tex. janitorial outfit, Border Maintenance Services, thereby reducing workers' comp premiums, says a suit filed by its insurer, Texas Mutual.

FORBES: Workers' Con

Weak companies are still failing, like insurer Dai-ichi Mutual Fire and Marine earlier this month.

CNN: You Need Two Legs To Walk

Since Toho Mutual, a medium-sized insurer, collapsed in 1999, consumers have become nervous about the safety of their policies.

ECONOMIST: Life insurers in Japan

Virtus Investment Partners is a lucky casualty of the financial crisis--a sleepy mutual fund company spun off from insurer Phoenix Companies on Dec. 31, 2008, just as financial markets neared their depths.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In the 2011 Insurance Shopping Study, American Family (a mutual company) was the top ranked insurer.

FORBES: Are Mutually Owned Car Insurance Companies More Successful?

It would help, says Rowan Gormley of Virgin Direct (a joint venture between Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Australian Mutual Provident, Australia's biggest insurer), if regulation promoted clarity.

ECONOMIST: Tax and saving