About half of the layoffs will be at the company's Worcester, Mass., headquarters, with the rest coming in offices around the country.
Chief Executive Frederick Eppinger told the (Worcester) Telegram and Gazette that he hopes to find new jobs in the company for at least some of the Worcester employees.
The announcement, made in Allmerica's third-quarter earnings report Monday night, ends a yearlong effort to sell other companies' life and annuity products. Allmerica stopped selling its own life-insurance products last October after a prolonged stock market slide and converted its sales force into broker/ dealers.
"I have a lot of mixed feelings about the decision," Mr. Eppinger told the newspaper. "I applaud the actions of the employees who tried to make it work but it's hard to start from scratch. What it does do is ensure that we will be focused on our decision to be a world-class property and casualty insurer."
The decision brings a close to Allmerica's 159-year history in the life- insurance business. The company began in 1844 as the State Mutual Life Insurance Company of Worcester.
In its third-quarter results, Allmerica reported net income of $11.4 million, or 21 cents a share, including a $7.2 million after-tax charge, or 13 cents per share, for the closure of the broker-dealer operation.
The company reported a net loss of $313.4 million, or $5.93 a share, for the same period last year, prompting the resignation of longtime Chief Executive John F. O'Brien.