Beneficial Financial Group is an insurance and financial services company based in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. It is a subsidiary of

Deseret Management Corporation Deseret Management Corporation (DMC) () is an American operating company, managing select global, for-profit entities affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was established in 1966 by church president D ...

(DMC), the for-profit arm of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church). The company was founded in 1905 and as of its 2013 fiscal year end had assets of $3.0 billion. The insurance side of the company was known for many years as the ''Beneficial Life Insurance Company''. Beneficial is certified by the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association for ethical business practices. Beneficial held an "A+" (stable) rating from

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...

for financial strength as of 2006. However, S&P downgraded the rating to "A" due to exposure to

Mortgage-backed security A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an "Financial instrument, instrument") which is secured by a mortgage loan, mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals ( ...

investments in the wake of the 2008 housing bubble, and warned of further possible devaluations unless DMC replenished some of Beneficial's capital as it deteriorates "from its currently strong level." On June 16, 2009, it was announced that Beneficial would stop writing new policies at the end of August. DMC reiterated its commitment to back existing policies, but said Beneficial was too small to compete with larger insurers.Beneficial Financial Group cuts 150 of its 214 Utah jobs
Deseret News. Retrieved on 2009-09-29. In 2019, David Nielsen, a former employee of the LDS Church's investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors (EP), filed a whistleblower complaint with the Internal Revenue Service. Nielsen asserted that a portion of Beneficial's funding during a financial downturn had been provided by EP, a possible violation of federal tax rules. A statement from the church denied any wrongdoing, and claimed Nielsen's allegations were based on "limited information."

Location

The company headquarters for many years was in the Beneficial Life Tower, directly above the ZCMI Center Mall. This office tower had the company name in large letters along the side, lit in blue at the top of the structure. The words ''Beneficial Life'' could be seen from quite a distance as the tower had an entirely unimpeded view of the Salt Lake Valley along the main artery known as State Street. During the mid-1980s the Beneficial Life tower achieved notoriety when a rare breeding pair of

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...

s decided to take residence on the company letters on the north side of the building. Around 2006, Beneficial moved to the former Kennecott building on an opposite corner of the same block. Both buildings remained while almost the entirety of the block was torn down, along with neighboring blocks of downtown Salt Lake City, and turned into a new development called the City Creek Center.

References

{{Authority control Deseret Management Corporation Life insurance companies of the United States American companies established in 1905 Financial services companies established in 1905 Financial services companies of the United States Companies based in Salt Lake City 1905 establishments in Utah