The short answer
Yes. American General is a real, state licensed United States life insurance company, and it is almost certainly the company named on the front page of your contract. Life insurance is issued by American General Life Insurance Company of Houston, Texas, except in New York, where it is issued by The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Corebridge Financial, Inc., which is the name the group markets under today. If your policy says American General, your statement says Corebridge and the advertising you remember said AIG, all three names belong to the same coverage.
American General was founded in Houston, Texas in 1926, was acquired by American International Group in 2001, and its life insurance business has since 2022 been part of Corebridge Financial, Inc., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRBG and files its financial statements publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The name is on your paperwork and nowhere else
Most people who ask this are not reacting to a letter that arrived. They are holding paperwork, often paperwork somebody else kept, and going looking for a company that has stopped appearing anywhere. The web address printed on the old policy packet does not resolve. A search for the name lands on Corebridge Financial. The advertising anyone remembers said AIG. Three names, one policy, and nothing obvious to tell you which of them to trust. The explanation is ordinary. American General is a legacy name. It is still the name printed on the contract and still the name your state regulator lists, but it stopped being the name the group markets under after the life business was separated from American International Group in 2022 and given the Corebridge brand. A name can be entirely current on a policy and completely invisible in the market at the same time, and the second thing is the one people notice first. What makes this one land hard is when it usually comes up. Beneficiaries and executors meet the question at the worst possible moment, sorting through a file, holding a policy that may be decades old, with the person who bought it gone and nobody left to ask. The coverage is intact. Only the letterhead moved.
How to check it yourself in about a minute
You should never have to take our word for it, or the company's. Every one of these is free, public, and works for any insurer you ever want to look up.
- Search the licence lookup for the insurer, not the brand. Your state department of insurance runs a free public licence lookup, and the consumer portal at naic.org points you to the right one. Search American General Life Insurance Company, home state Texas, or The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York if you are a New York resident. Searching Corebridge Financial, Inc. or AIG may return nothing at all, because those are the parent and the former parent rather than the licensed insurer.
- Read the first page of the contract you already hold. The company named as the insurer on page one is the company that owes the death benefit. That name is what every other check should use. If your contract names an older company that was later folded into the group, search that name first, and if your state lookup returns nothing under it, search American General Life Insurance Company instead, because when insurers merge it is the surviving company that regulators list and that carries the obligations forward.
- Match the policy number, not the letterhead. Compare the policy number on any letter or statement against a premium notice, a policy schedule or the description on a bank draft you already recognise. Logos and letterhead are easy to imitate. A policy number that lines up with your own records is the confirmation that actually settles it.
- Confirm the two names on the company website itself. This check is specific to this carrier and takes about a minute. Corebridge publishes the disclosure in plain sight on its own life insurance pages: life insurance issued by American General Life Insurance Company, Houston, TX, except in New York, where it is issued by The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, and it states that Corebridge Financial and Corebridge are marketing names used by those companies. Seeing the company link its own two names in public is often all somebody needs.
- If you are a beneficiary and cannot find the policy, use the free locator. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners runs a free Life Insurance Policy Locator Service at naic.org for exactly this situation. You submit the deceased person details once, participating insurers search their records, and any company holding a policy where you are the beneficiary or the authorised representative is asked to contact you. It costs nothing and it is designed for old paperwork with a company name that no longer looks current.
- Check financial strength independently. Insurer financial strength is rated by independent agencies and can be looked up free at ambest.com. That is a different question from whether the company is licensed to write in your state, and it is worth having both answers rather than one.
What is actually going on
- American General is the insurer. Corebridge is the marketing name. Corebridge states on its own site that Corebridge Financial and Corebridge are marketing names used by its insurance companies, and that life insurance is issued by American General Life Insurance Company of Houston, Texas. When you are verifying anything, use the insurer name, because that is the name your state regulator lists and the name printed on your contract.
- AIG is the former parent, not the issuer. The AIG name people remember was the brand of the group that owned the business between 2001 and the 2022 separation. Who owns shares at the top of a corporate group is a separate question from who issued your policy and who supervises it. The answer to the second question has been American General Life Insurance Company throughout, regulated by the states it writes in.
- New York contracts name a different company on purpose. New York has its own licensing rules, so business written there goes through a New York domiciled insurer, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York. That is why a New York policy in the same household can carry a completely different insurer name from a policy written in another state. Both sit inside the same group and both are licensed companies you can look up by name.
- An old policy does not expire because the branding did. A life insurance contract runs on its own terms. The death benefit, the premium, any cash value, the riders and the named beneficiaries come from the document that was signed, and a change of parent company, brand or web address does not amend it. Paperwork from decades ago with a name nobody advertises any more is still a claim against a live insurer.
- More corporate change is possible, and the rule stays the same. Corebridge has announced on its own website that it and Equitable Holdings intend to merge. Announcements like that reshape ownership at the top of a group. They do not rewrite policies already in force, and the check never changes: find the insurer named on your contract, look that name up with your own state, and match your policy number against records you already hold.
Common questions
Is American General still in business?
Yes. American General Life Insurance Company is an active, licensed United States life insurer based in Houston, Texas, and it is still the company that issues life insurance across the group outside New York. What changed is the name over it. The business moved from American International Group ownership into Corebridge Financial, Inc. in 2022, so consumer marketing now carries the Corebridge name while the contracts continue to name American General.
The website printed on my old American General policy does not work any more. Where do I go?
That is expected, and it is not a sign that anything is wrong. Web addresses are retired when a group rebrands, while contracts are not. Go to the current company website by navigating there yourself rather than by clicking a link in unexpected mail, and use the insurer name from page one of your policy when you make contact. Your state licence lookup is the other place the name still appears, and it is the more authoritative of the two.
Is American General the same company as AIG?
Not any more. American International Group acquired American General in 2001 and put its own brand over the business, and in 2022 the life and retirement operation was separated into Corebridge Financial, Inc. with its own listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Through both of those changes the issuing insurer on the policy stayed American General Life Insurance Company. So AIG was the parent for a period. It was almost certainly never the name on your contract.
My parent bought an American General policy years ago. Is it still worth anything?
Quite possibly, and it is worth finding out before assuming otherwise. A life insurance contract stays in force on the terms it was written on for as long as the required premiums were paid, and many older whole life policies carry nonforfeiture values that keep some reduced coverage in place even if payments stopped. Locate the policy schedule if you can, and if you cannot, the free Life Insurance Policy Locator Service at naic.org is built for exactly this. Do not throw away old paperwork because the company name looks out of date.
Why does my policy name The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York?
Because you were a New York resident when the policy was written. New York regulates insurance under its own rules, and business written there is issued by a New York domiciled company rather than by the Texas company. The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York is that company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the same parent as American General, and New York state can confirm its licence for you in about a minute.
I searched "is American General a scam" because the name led me somewhere unfamiliar. Was I wrong to worry?
Not at all, and checking an unfamiliar name against your own paperwork is exactly the right habit. The answer here is no. American General Life Insurance Company is a real, licensed United States life insurer working under a name that goes back to a Houston company founded in 1926, and the unfamiliar name you landed on is the parent company it now sits under. Your state licence lookup, searched under American General Life Insurance Company, settles the question for good.
Should I keep an American General policy I already have?
Often yes, and that is a genuinely good outcome. Coverage issued years ago was priced on the health you had at the time, and if your health has changed since, replacing it can cost more or may not be available on the same terms at all. Read the schedule, confirm the death benefit, check who is named as beneficiary, and then decide. Plenty of these reviews end with the sensible answer being to leave the policy exactly where it is.
How can I check that an insurance company is licensed in my state?
Every state runs a free public lookup through its department of insurance, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners keeps a consumer portal at naic.org that points you to the right one. Search the insurer by name and you will see whether it is authorised to write business in your state. It takes about a minute and it works for any company, not just this one.
I got mail about a policy I do not remember buying. What should I do?
Do not ignore it, and do not act on the letter alone. Match the policy number on the letter against your own records first. If it matches something you hold, the mail is almost certainly a servicing notice or a rebrand notice. If nothing matches, contact the insurer using the details on your own statement or on the company website you looked up yourself, rather than a number printed on an unexpected letter. That habit protects you generally, whoever the sender is.
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This guide is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Licensing and company details change, so confirm anything important with your state department of insurance. Policy Review Center is a free comparison and referral service, not an insurance agency, insurer, or producer, and it connects you with independent licensed agents. Carrier names are used for reference only and do not imply any endorsement or affiliation.