MAIF was established in 1934, initially to offer teachers an alternative car insurance compared to what the stock companies had to offer.  Its range of services gradually grew to include housing insurance, insurance of the individual, assistance, etc.

The initial range of services, based on non-life insurance was extended to include retirement products, savings and retirement savings, funeral insurance, financial services, and more, through the subsidiaries Parnasse-MAIF, MAIF Solutions Financières and Crédit Immobilier Direct (CID). The by-laws were also gradually changed to allow access to professionals from the sectors of teaching, research, culture, sport and leisure, humanitarian activities and social activism.  Another subsidiary, Filia-MAIF, was established in 1988 to deal with the children of policyholders who could not join MAIF directly.

Over the years a number of partnerships were developed with other Social Economy companies, notably the one finalised in 2009 with MACIF and MATMUT to set up SFEREN, a French mutalist alliance.

The MAIF Group is in 4th place in terms of the number of homes insured for multi-risk housing insurance, and in terms of the number of vehicles insured, and ranks 2nd in life accidents policies.