American Financial Group's major insurance division operates as the Great American Insurance Company, founded in 1872, and focuses on property and casualty insurance services. Other affiliates and subsidiaries include Great American Custom, Mid-Continent Group, National Interstate, and Republic Indemnity. Insurance specialties also include equine, trucking, executive liability, fidelity and crime, and agribusiness. Great American Financial Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Group and supplies a range of annuities, life insurance products and supplemental insurances to individuals and enterprises.
The parent company, AFG, is owned principally by the family of financier Carl Lindner, Jr., who bought the company in 1973 and served as its chairman until his death in 2011. The senior Lindner's sons, Carl H. Lindner III and S. Craig Lindner serve as co-chief executive officer.
American Financial Group was one of the first publicly traded Fortune 500 companies to make political donations after corporations' freedom of speech rights were expanded to include donations as a result of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Carl Lindner, Jr is a longtime top Republican donor, donating millions of his personal income to candidates and political action committees,[4] which sent ripples in campaign finance circles during the 2010 mid-term elections. American Financial, of which Lindner has a non-majority 42% share, donated $400,000 to the Republican-allied PACAmerican Crossroads.[5]