actions leave it in a precarious position. “Their problem now is if everybody died tomorrow they would not have enough assets to pay off those claims,” Gold said. Booker T. Washington was founded by entrepreneurial legend A.G. Gaston in 1923 with $500. Gaston, who initially offered insurance policies to steel workers, sold his insurance company in 1987 and worked at his bank until six months before his death in 1996. Booker T. Washington Insurance was a financially sound enterprise when Gaston sold the company.