In the big world of life insurance AAFMAA is not well known. You probably knew this when you first joined. Many new members ask, "Why haven't I heard of you before now?" We are one of the best-kept secrets in the insurance industry. Here's why: We serve a very targeted and specialized military market — the Army and Air Force community.
As you may know from looking back at our history, back to Custer's Last Stand, AAFMAA was initially formed to aid the families of the deceased Soldiers in a prompt, simple and substantial manner. From that simple need, AAFMAA evolved into the low-cost life insurance provider for military servicemembers and their families with very affordable premiums and unsurpassed Survivor Assistance Services. We rely heavily on word of mouth of the membership in order to sustain and improve the association's growth. This helps to keep costs down, which benefits everyone.
AAFMAA is a Mutual organization.
As a member and policy holder, you are a part owner of AAFMAA. In the commercial world of life insurance there are mutual (member owned-policy holders) insurance companies — such as Northwestern MUTUAL, and Mass MUTUAL — and there are stock owned insurance companies where the owners purchase stock.
AAFMAA is a membership association. AAFMAA members must always be servicemembers, past or present. The servicemember can have their family insured by AAFMAA but the family members are not voting members of AAFMAA. However, they benefit from the same low-cost life insurance. The bottom-line is that the more costs are controlled, the better the premiums for life insurance and services for members and families.
Spread the costs out.
The more members or policyholders join AAFMAA, the lower the cost becomes to each member. You have heard the expressions, "There is strength in numbers"? Or perhaps the other that can be applied here is "Spread the Wealth." This thinking applies to AAFMAA's overhead costs as well. Helping spread the word about the great value AAFMAA offers military families saves advertising costs and at the same time helps spread the costs out by an additional member.
