What Are Co-Ops?
As Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and others have noted, cooperatives (or “co-ops”) have a long and rich history. For example, farmers established co-ops to market and distribute their produce, workers in some industries organized financial co-ops called “credit unions,” purchasing co-ops offer members access to a variety of goods and services at favorable terms, and when the term “co-op” is used in New York city, the speaker most likely means an apartment building collectively owned by its residents. The co-op concept is also longstanding and widespread in the insurance sector, where it is known as a “mutual” insurance company. Thus, such large well-known companies as Mutual of Omaha and Northwestern Mutual Life are in fact cooperatives. There are also successful smaller, niche-market mutual insurers, such as Church Mutual (which offers lines of property, casualty, and liability coverage for member religious institutions) and Jeweler’s Mutual (which offers similar coverage lines for membe
