The auto insurance industry has its origins in the period immediately following World War II, and at that time – believe it or not – everybody who purchased an auto insurance policy was charged the exact same rate. For years, Joseph worked in the industry under those conditions, gradually realizing (thanks in part to his skills as a mathematics whiz) that this was a nonsensical way to conduct business. According to his official biography on the website for the company he went on to found, he eventually had an epiphany that like most epiphanies only seems obvious in retrospect: That company is Mercury Insurance, founded by Joseph in 1962 for $2 million – roughly $16 million in today’s dollars – he managed to scrape together. 23 years later, the company went public, and is now worth upwards of $3.3 billion on the stock market. Since founding Mercury, Joseph has been politically active within the insurance field as well, lobbying for public insurance regulations like a 2010 California ballot initiative that he endorsed as giving insurance customers access to more discounts. And despite Mercury’s sometimes rocky consumer advocacy history (the company was once cited by the California Department of Insurance for “contempt toward and/or abuse of its customers” and was once fined $300,000 for various infractions), Joseph says he’s proud of his legacy in the insurance business: All things considered, that’s probably preferable to being remembered as the oldest American billionaire.
