What kind of company is USAA?
The United Services Automobile Association has a funny legal structure: it's not a corporation and has no shareholders. Policyholders and account holders are paid any profits. In that respect, it functions very much like a credit union; technically, it's structured as a Texas-based and Texas Department of Insurance regulated unincorporated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange and Fortune 500 financial services company offering banking, investing, and insurance to people and families that serve, or served, in the United States military. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAA Normally a company like this is a corporation so that its owners can benefit from limited liability: otherwise, if the company loses millions or billions, any one of the individual owners / members could be held liable for paying those millions and billions! However, the Texas laws which govern them as a Texas-based inter-insurance exchange also serve to limit the liability of members. The banking services are provided by the USAA Federal Savings Bank, which is structured as a  (drumroll) federal savings bank. They also own a couple of other random businesses.
why did you link a document on government labor? do you think amazon is a public employer?   when discussing what auto companies are or are not building in michigan, i think you will find that they are building tech, digital, and other white collar investments here. very similar to the focus of this thread. Lol GM and Chrysler unsecured bonds had terrible recoveries when they defaulted in 08. They sure as fuck weren't backed by the Treasury. The government just won't let the big automakers liquidate.  Perhaps a simple Google search before you pontificate next time? Oh yeah, it's SUCH a pain in the ass. /s  People just want things to be done for them. It took me all of 10 minutes to set up a new USAA checking/savings account last week, and another 10 online with a BofA rep to close down my account. The conspiracy theorist in me says this is a huge bet on a future of high crime and civil unrest in the US. Otherwise, why would owning most of the American consumer gun industry be such an attractive investment, unless you're banking on a high demand for guns?  EDIT: Either that, or they're possibly betting on the US invading yet another country, depending on how heavily these companies are involved in military contracting. If I want to spin conspiracy theories, anyway. Probably they're just undervalued companies, like any others. But it's awfully intriguing... Industry groups? Product groups?  No way, that's not how this works and the easy googles are lies. There's a bunker 5,000 feet below any given investment bank that is constructed of solid gold and painted in the blood of fat fingers.  In that shining bunker, M&amp;A resides. "A company whose stock is available for sale to the public is called a publicly-held or publicly-traded company.  A public company's stock is sold on a stock exchange, and anyone with money can buy shares through a stock broker. This contrasts with a privately-held company, in which the shares are not traded on a stock exchange. In order to invest in a private company, you would need to talk directly to the current owners of the company. Finding out if a company is public or private is fairly easy.  One way to check this is to look at the Wikipedia page for the company.  For example, if you take a look at the Apple page, on the right sidebar you'll see ""Type: Public"", followed by the stock exchange ticker symbol ""AAPL"".  Compare this to the page for Mars, Inc.; on that page, you'll see ""Type: Private"", and no stock ticker symbol listed. Another way to tell: If you can find a quote for a share price on a financial site (such as Google Finance or Yahoo Finance), you can buy the stock.  You won't find a stock price for Mars, Inc. anywhere, because the stock is not publicly traded." My dad runs an AV labor company (trade show setups etc) and his insurance company called him as they were finalizing his workers comp. They asked when he was submitting all of his employees drug screenings. My dad laughed at them and said he would not be submitting any. They told him his premium would be higher to which my dad replied that if he drug tested, he would have 4 people working for him and thus wouldn't even have a business - just send the bill. We provide business insurance at competitive  business insurance service rates to customers across the country. We can offer an assortment of answers for address their budgetary needs or business needs.  We are reliable for the best insurance policy, you can trust at the Oxford Risk LLC. We have cheapest policy for business. As you know, business insurance policy is supportable for us such as U.S. property/casualty insurer for business insurance Fairlawn Ohio capital strength should enable them to withstand near-term volatility related to hurricane events, but a major catastrophic hurricane could change that, according to a new report.We know getting insurance for your business is not always the easiest thing to do. With so many terms of any business and always coverage. Business owner's insurance policy is often the most convenient way of protecting your business's physical and financial assets. I can do better, I can show you [sources](http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion.html):  &gt; Religious Organization Exception: Under Title VII, religious organizations are permitted to give employment preference to members of their own religion. The exception applies only to those institutions whose “purpose and character are primarily religious.” Factors to consider that would indicate whether an entity is religious include: whether its articles of incorporation state a religious purpose; whether its day-to-day operations are religious (e.g., are the services the entity performs, the product it produces, or the educational curriculum it provides directed toward propagation of the religion?); whether it is not-for-profit; and whether it affiliated with, or supported by, a church or other religious organization.  Looks like my plumbing example may have been extreme because it doesn't necessarily have a religious purpose under those terms, but to be fair neither does the fortune 500 christian insurance company, whose primary purpose is to sell insurance, I was referring to earlier whose large legal department said we were legally safe to hire only christian salesmen and board members. That's not cheap in my book, either.  Haven't flown in awhile and wondered about prices.  Going back to Dec 2013, the returns on the stocks of United, Delta, and AA are in the [double-digits](http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&amp;chdd=1&amp;chds=1&amp;chdv=1&amp;chvs=maximized&amp;chdeh=0&amp;chfdeh=0&amp;chdet=1407799434687&amp;chddm=65688&amp;chls=IntervalBasedLine&amp;cmpto=NYSE:UAL;NYSE:DAL&amp;cmptdms=0;0&amp;q=NASDAQ:AAL&amp;ntsp=0&amp;ei=J1DpU7iZKcSyiAKN7IGoCA), so they're definitely not having a rough time on this basis. "I was a Primerica representative, left to be on my own, and then returned. Insurance is one matter that depends on the individual. Some do not need it.  For example, when I was an independent agent with an independent marketing organization (IMO) (oh yes! multi-level is everywhere, dont kid yourself) I had an upline as well. We were pushed to sell final expense [burial insurance].  As an ethical agent, I believe this is a bad business practice.  Primerica does not sell unneeded insurance to old people. How can you justify selling the elderly, insurance to cover them for $10,000, at almost 100 to 150 a month? I told my elderly potential clients, after seeing they live on a tight budget,  that they were better off purchasing a cremation policy or funeral package than burial insurances as it would save them money in the long run. Primerica is right in saying they are the only ones out there catering to the Working Class and Middle-America. Where else can you start an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) with $25 a month?  Nowhere! All the other insurance producers want more money. They don't want to spend their time with what they call ""losers"".  I love showing Poor people how the Rich get richer.  Poor people should know the truth." A more updated answer: USAA is an American bank offering chip and pin credit cards to US customers.  USAA membership is restricted to military service members and their relatives, but according to this Los Angeles Times article, you do not need to be a USAA member to get a USAA chip and pin credit card. I'm a USAA member and can testify that my USAA chip and pin MasterCard worked in Europe, so assuming nonmembers get the same kind of card, it will work.  However, it's worth noting that for it to work, the place still has to accept MasterCard, which seems somewhat less common in Europe than in the USA.  (In Germany in particular, I was rather baffled to find that many places only accept some other European bank cards but not MasterCard/VISA.) "I am doing an assignment for a finance class, and I am writing a recommendation for a specific capital structure. One of the concerns brought up by the ""board of directors"" was interest coverage, so in my addressing that topic in my report, I want to compare to competitors. The interest coverage ratio under this capital structure that I'm choosing is 11.8 and the two competitors we are given information on are Company A (who has an interest coverage ratio of 6.67) and Company B (who has an interest coverage ratio of 11.25). It seems good, but my concern is that I may be missing something, as Company A is similar in size (in terms of sales) to the company I am writing a report for while Company B has ~50 times more sales than the company I am writing a report for.   Advice, things to consider as I move forward?" That is where I think Walmart comes in to buy up a business like this. With their network of stores and the insane buying power they have the can push a good solid quality that the middle class American wants and do it very cheaply. I feel this will be their main combat against Amazon buying whole foods. Currently Walmart makes more on grocery sales than anything else as a hole and will continue to do so because of what and how they are doing it. Walmart is sneaky as fuck when it comes to what they can do and how they can do it. Even Walmart buying up Advanced Auto Parts is a solid counter move to Amazon buying Whole Foods...the next step is buying a Blue Apron type business... and with how Blue Apron is doing financially and given their name they are entering buy off territory.  In my humble albeit non pro status in the stock market my 3 buys are Snap Chat, GoPro, and Walmart for long term retire and never have to worry about money again companies. I am by no means an expert but I have never come close to losing money in the stock market and do a good amount of research before I invest. Snapchat is my top 1 tbh. Sorry for going on a tangent lol Yes, that would qualify as a scam to me.  I didn't think they could do most of those things, especially buying insurance without your permission.    When my area was reclassified as a flood area, they told me I had to provide proof of flood insurance, and if I didn't, they would get it for me at a price that might be higher than if I did it myself.  But there was no problem with my choice of an online flood insurance company that was much cheaper than my AAA insurance for the same.  I think that at least some of the rules are from the underwriter (?) like Fannie Mae or whoever it is that they work through.  I don't really know all the ins and outs, though.  I do know that when I had a loan through Wells Fargo, I had to increase my insurance in one area to match the value in another - I forget the details, but I think I could have reduced coverage in an alternate category if I had so desired.