Midvale Indemnity Co

Fabian Fondriest, CEO of Midvale Indemnity CO

I just stumbled upon a conspiracy theory, or maybe I am missing something. There is supposedly an insurance company named Midvale Indemnity Co, located at 6000 American Parkway, Madison, WI 53783.  The CEO is supposedly the above Fabian Fondriest and the President is Andrew McElwee (no picture found). So what is the problem?

Midvale Indemnity Co isn't incorporated in Wisconsin.

They also aren't incorporated in Illinois or Massachusetts. They don't have a website, or address or phone number.  6000 American Parkway is the location of American Family Insurance, which is a front for Midvale.  

I called American Family and they gave me this phone number for Midvale:  800-692-8326.   This is a bad joke.  The main phone number for American Family is 1-800-692-6326, so this is the same number except ending in 8326 instead of 6326.  When you call it you get an endless number of offers (If you are over 50 press 1.  If you need free roadside assistance press 1.  If you want homeowners insurance press 1).  There is no live human there.  

Fabian Fondriest, is actually the CEO of Homesite Group Incorporated, which is a real company incorporated in Massachusetts with an address of  One Federal St, Boston, MA 02110.  It has the website go.homesite.com.  He for sure doesn't live in Madison WI.  Mr Fondriest is also on the Board of Directors of American Family.  Andrew McElwee Jr is also president of Homesite in Boston.

The conspiracy gets deeper.  We received a phone call from the following number:  801-449-6555. The woman on this line was asking for an insurance payment. A reverse search indicates that this is a landline located in Midvale, UT, a suburb of Salt Lake City.  Hmm.  Is this a coincidence?  I called back the number and received the message: "You have reached an inactive number.  Goodbye.".

And the other number (this comes from the Missouri Secretary of State office) is 847-320-2000.

This is an Illinois phone number.  It says something like: you have called Lumbermens Casualty Insurance Company.  Lumbermens Casualty Insurance Company and American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company are in liquidation.  Hmm, what does Lumbermens Casualty have to do with Midvale Indemnity?  I'm glad you asked.

Midvale Indemnity Company was formerly known as Lumbermens Casualty Insurance Co, and before that Kemper Casualty Insurance Co. 

This is all very mysterious.  As far as I can tell, Midvale Indemnity is probably just a shell corporation with no assets or employees.  Like I said, they have no website or phone number or email address.  Their supposed physical address in Madison is the location of another company.

I would love to have my conspiracy theory proved wrong, and I will retract all of my suspicions if I am wrong.  But the immediate question is: would you buy an insurance policy for which Midvale Indemnity Co was the underwriter?  I have my opinion, but you should do your own research.

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Update:  I found another number for Midvale Indemnity: (608) 249-2111.  From: https://sbs.naic.org/solar-external-lookup/lookup/company/summary/54219392?jurisdiction=WI .  But when you call this it says: "Welcome to American Family Insurance".

Here is another list of predecessor companies:

Name Change History

Previous Name	New Name	Effective Date
	ALEXANDER HAMILTON INS CO OF AMERICA	10/29/1984
ALEXANDER HAMILTON INS CO OF AMERICA	Household Insurance Company	01/01/1996
Household Insurance Company	Kemper Casualty Insurance Co	10/01/1999
Kemper Casualty Insurance Co	Lumbermens Casualty Ins Co	09/30/2010
Lumbermens Casualty Ins Co	Midvale Indemnity Company	08/14/2013

Update 2:  DNB says that Midvale Indemnity Company was founded in 1912, has 9,000 employees and had 838 million in sales in 2018 (or 2019).  It also has 3 subsidiaries and 7 branch offices.  It is labeled as "ULTIMATE PARENT". 

I think DNB is also in on the scam.

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Update 3:

Midvale Indemnity Co is real company, with $59 million in assets and $45 million in liabilities as of the end of 2018.  I apologize for all the negative things I have said about them.  However, I still think it is odd that:

1.  Insurance Companies in Wisconsin don't show up on the business search.  This must be an oddity of Wisconsin law.  They figure that since they are regulated by the insurance commissioner they are different from all other types of companies.

2.  There is no explanation as to how they are a successor to Lumbermens Casualty Insurance Co, yet that company is in liquidation.  

3. Why we got a phonecall from Midvale UT that is disconnected.  Is this some sort of inside joke on behalf of the company?

4. How they are related to American Family and Homesite.  Why wouldn't we just do business with Homesite directly?

5. Why it is implossible to find out anything else about Midvale - no phone number, no website, no address other than one shared with another company.  And why there is false information on DNB.