Horace Mann Educators Corporation is an insurance holding company that markets and underwrites personal lines of property and casualty (primarily personal lines automobile and homeowners) insurance, retirement annuities (primarily tax-qualified products) and life insurance in the United States. The company was founded by two Illinois educators, Vern D. Swaback and Leslie Nimmo in 1945. The company is headquartered in Springfield, Illinois and has been publicly traded since 2003. Horace Mann Educators Corporation is named after Horace Mann, an American education reformist who dedicated his life to improving education in the United States.