The William Penn Association is a Fraternal Benefit Society founded over 120 years ago. Our Association operates on a non-profit basis, providing Life Insurance and Annuities to our members. The William Penn Association was founded on February 21, 1886 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, by thirteen Hungarian coal miners. It was chartered by the State of Pennsylvania in December of that same year under the name “Verhovay Aid Association.” The goal of the founders was to extend a helping hand to each other and to the many Hungarian immigrants who worked and suffered in the mines and industrial centers of America at a period in its history when insurance of any sort was still in the far away future.