Genworth Financial is a Fortune 500 insurance company. The firm was founded as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871. In 1986, Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance, which became Aon plc in 1987. In 1996, Life of Virginia was sold to GE Capital. In May 2004, Genworth Financial was formed out of various insurance businesses of General Electric in the largest IPO of that year.

Genworth Financial has three segments: Retirement & Protection, US Mortgage Insurance, and International. Products and services include life and long-term care insurance, mortgage insurance, and annuities.

A.G. McIlwaine was the company’s first president. Begun by two dozen Petersburg investors, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia offered its first policies to local customers before expanding to Richmond, Virginia. Under general agent F.W. Chamberlayne, the Richmond Department attracted a large number of new clients. Within the first decade, the client base expanded beyond the South.

As the Life Insurance Company of Virginia grew, the headquarters were moved to Richmond, Virginia. By the turn of the twentieth century, the company offered products through different divisions,. The “Ordinary Division” of the company offered whole life annuity options and related products, the “Intermediate Division” offered term life products, endowment policies, and limited payment policies, and an industrial division offered inexpensive products.

Colloquially known as “Life of Virginia”, the company expanded its portfolio in the 20th century. Beginning with its first annuities business written in 1928, the company grew to include different mortgage insurance, lifestyle protection, and long-term care products and options.

Over the following decades, the company has undergone several major acquisitions, beginning in 1986 when Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance for $557 million, which became AON Corporation the following year. In 1995, almost a decade after the acquisition, GE Capital, the financial services unit of General Electric, announced its plan to buy most of AON Corporation’s life insurance business, including Life of Virginia.

Under GE Capital, Life of Virginia became a part of GE Financial Assurance Holdings, Inc., before becoming GE Capital Assurance Company. The company was incorporated as Genworth Financial, Inc. on October 23, 2003, formed out of several GE Capital insurance companies. On May 25, 2004, Genworth became a publicly traded company in the largest initial public offering (IPO) of 2004.

GE sold its remaining stake in the company in 2006 for an estimated $2.8 billion. In 2007, another GE Capital insurance company, First Colony Life Insurance Company, merged with Genworth Life and Annuity Assurance Company, one of the entities within Genworth Financial, Inc, also in 2007, Sun Life Financial bought the Employee Benefits Group (EBG) of Genworth Financial, putting Sun Life Financial on the top market for Employee Benefits programs. As of December 31, 2011, Genworth Financial, Inc. had more than 15 million customers in more than 25 countries.

On April 1, 2013, Genworth announced the completion of a legal entity reorganization, with the result being the creation of a new ultimate holding company. This restructuring separated the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries from the overall firm.

In October 2016, China Oceanwide Holdings Group agreed to buy Genworth Financial Inc. for $2.7 billion in US dollars.

Life insurance was the company’s first product. As of December 2013, Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company and Genworth Life Insurance Company had over $728 billion insurance in force.

Genworth Financial offers a range of products and services, including long-term care insurance and mortgage insurance. The long-term care business provides individual long-term care insurance, group long-term care insurance for employers offering benefits to employees, and caregiver support services.

Prior to 2016, the company offered term life insurance, whole life insurance, universal life insurance, and index universal life insurance, as well as annuities, including fixed immediate annuities, traditional fixed deferred annuities, and fixed index annuities. In 2016, the company suspended sales of annuities and life insurance, putting the existing books of business into runoff.

On April 14, 2014, a class action lawsuit was commenced the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Genworth for "disseminating false and misleading statements to the investing public." Another lawsuit was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of investors. On March 14, 2016, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation and the Fresno County Employees' Retirement Association reached an agreement in principle to recover US$219 million. The lawsuit alleged that Genworth and certain senior executives made false and misleading statements about Genworth's long-term care insurance business and the company's financial statements between October 30, 2013 and November 5, 2014.