in 1971, broad acquired sun life insurance company of america, a family-owned insurance company founded in baltimore in 1890, for $52 million. broad transformed sun life into the retirement savings powerhouse sunamerica. sunamerica went public in 1989, and owned 42% of it by 1998. in 1998, he sold sunamerica to the american international group (aig) for $17.8 billion after only 3 weeks of secret negotiations. broad continued as ceo of sunamerica until 1999, when he left to focus on philanthropy full-time.