USAA has confirmed it is ending its seven-year relationship with advertising agency Campbell Ewald. The decision came after the public release of a racist email by one of the agency’s creative directors.
Photo: William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

USAA registered another banner year in 2014.

The financial services and insurance giant set new highs for revenue, profit, net worth and membership last year, it disclosed in its annual report Monday.

The company registered a $3.4 billion profit last year, up $684 million — or 25 percent — from $2.7 billion in 2013. Revenue topped $24 billion last year, up almost $3.1 billion from $21 billion in 2013. That was a nearly 15 percent increase.

Meanwhile, USAA’s net worth — the difference between assets and liabilities — climbed to $26.7 billion at the end of last year, up $2.5 billion from $24.2 billion in 2013. It was a 10 percent increase. USAA calls net worth the best measure of its ability to meet its commitments.

“USAA has never been stronger financially — or better prepared to help our members,” USAA Chairman Lester Lyles said in the annual report.

USAA paid out almost $11 billion in noncatastrophe claims in 2014, compared with $9.5 billion in 2013. It handled 137,000 catastrophe claims last year, up from nearly 100,000 in 2013.

The company returned about $1.6 billion to members in the form of dividends, distributions, and bank rebates and rewards last year, up slightly from 2013. Last year’s distributions were also a record.

USAA ended the year with 10.7 million members, the most in its history. It had 10.1 million members at the end of 2013.

In some ways, the annual report was a final salute to former CEO and President Joe Robles, who led USAA from the end of 2007 to this past February when he retired.

“USAA is better for having had Joe as its leader,” Lyles said in the report. “From helping open the doors to membership to all who have received a discharge type of Honorable to leading veteran-hiring efforts, promoting innovation and helping navigate USAA financially through tumultuous economic conditions, Joe has been a transformational CEO by any measure.

Robles noted in the report that veterans and military spouses have accounted for more than 30 percent of new hires at USAA.

“In fact, since 2006, we’ve hired more than 9,000 such employees, and have launched veteran team training for USAA in careers in areas like IT and claims adjusting,” Robles said. “Who better to understand the daily challenges of the military families we serve than veterans and military spouses themselves?”

Overall, USAA had about 27,500 employees at the end of last year — including about 18,000 in San Antonio. It’s the city’s second-largest private employer, behind H-E-B.

Robles has been replaced by Stuart Parker, an Air Force veteran and a 16-year USAA employee who has served as the company’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Robles called him “the right person at the right time to lead USAA.”
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