ARAG SE

The ARAG Group was founded in 1935 as legal insurance company under the name of Deutsche Auto-Rechtsschutz-AG (DARAG) by the Düsseldorf entrepreneur and attorney Heinrich Fassbender. With that venture, Faßbender opened the door to a lucrative field of business. His founding principle: "All citizens should be able to assert their rights, not only those who can afford to do so".[6] Following the expansion of legal insurance beyond the boundaries of straight automotive legal insurance (1949), the company branched out into other segments of the insurance industry in 1962 and began marketing the business concept of legal insurance. The ARAG Group entered the life assurance business in 1965 and issued its first health insurance policies in 1985, having acquired other insurance companies in that segment. These firms are based in Munich, the second German location of the ARAG Group. Other international legal insurance companies have been acquired over the years. The ARAG Group now has subsidiaries in 14 countries.

In 2001, the Group occupied new corporate headquarters in the ARAG Tower in Düsseldorf-Mörsenbroich, a building designed by Lord Norman Foster and the Düsseldorf firm of RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky Architektur + Städtebau. The Group has been an active sponsor of numerous clubs and associations, primarily in Düsseldorf, for many years.

ARAG Allgemeine Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG is the operational holding company for the Group and manages the legal insurance business in Germany and abroad. Those companies specialized in composite and personal insurance as well as the Group’s service companies are grouped under this operational holding company. Paul-Otto Faßbender is the majority shareholder in the ARAG Group and is responsible as Chairman of the Management Board for all central Group functions. He is supported by Group Board members Johannes Kathan, Werner Nicoll, Hanno Petersen and Joerg Schwarze. The operational insurance companies are subordinate to this executive management level.[7]

In the United States, ARAG North America was founded in 1973 as a division of Midwest Mutual Insurance Company and began creating, marketing and administering a new group legal product. In 1989, ARAG purchased the organization and created ARAG Insurance Company. The company began by offering legal insurance as a benefit to employees but expanded over the years.

ARAG UK was founded in 2006 and is now run by the leadership team of Tony Buss, David Haynes, Andy Talbot, Bob Moreton and Chris Millward. In thirteen years it had grown to a company of over 120 staff in the core areas of sales, underwriting, claims, marketing, IT and accounts. On the day of its launch, ARAG announced that it had secured the business portfolio of ULR Knebworth. In early 2009, ARAG acquired the legal expenses portfolio of Capita shortly after acquiring ATE Ltd, a specialist after-the-event provider. ARAG UK provides a range of before-the-event and after-the-event legal insurance products and services.