the cost of insurance is determined not on by premiums but also by any amounts returned to policyholders as to a company like metropolitan are paid to the policyholders represent the excess of the company's income over time for expenses claims and t variations and all result primarily from changes and rates among policyholders and then the cost of doing business variations in income all rise to flee from changes in interest  investment and fill words about these may be of interest improve mortality among policyholders has tended to reduce the company's and has had a helpful effect on the evidence and the cost of insurance to policyholders the general upward trend in the cost of goods and services has caused metropolitans expenses to rise and has increased the cost of  over the last year the net effect of interest rates martella experience and the cost of doing business work permit the company to pay and nineteen for any larger amount of last year more than two million three hundred thousand people expressed confidence in the metropolitan organization and its agents by buying metropolitan policies many were members of our family whose us reaffirmed their faith in the company and thousands were new people who joined us bringing the total of metropolitan policy holders to thirty two million three hundred eighty four thousand the amount of new each year some policy holders are forced to give up their life insurance from an all time high during the depression and nineteen thirty two thirty three metropolitans lapse rates fell st conditions are reflected also in policy loans the volume of the company has no business together with favorable terminations rates resulted in a substantial increase in metropolitan protection dollars total eight hundred thirty four million more than the nineteen forty six figures in addition policyholders had accident and health protection provided forty million dollars in weekly benefits than five hundred million in principle some benefit in addition to life insurance the group version offers several kinds of employee benefit is included  accident and health protection and benefits to help meet hospital and surgical expenses the only common basis for comparison of these various types is in the amount of premium parable  past two years and continued growth in personal accident and health insurance shown by an increase of one million one hundred one thousand dollars in premium income for nine seven bringing the total for this type of protection to ten million nine hundred thousand dollars and the percentage of health premium income of the total for both accident health has been constantly increasing that's perhaps indicates that field man are capitalizing on the increasing public interest in complete protection against  the progress in increased protection for policyholders nine hundred forty seven directly reflects the excellent work done by metropolitan aging during the year it testifies to the outstanding accomplishments of our field force in nineteen forty seven eight seven thousand three hundred seventy four agents was instrumental in bringing to policyholders more than one hundred thousand dollars of new ordinary insurance during the year these members of the one hundred thousand dollars make up thirty six point seven percent of the total field force well there was a slight falling off  during the year margaret sales were placed through the agency field force than ever before the two thousand four hundred forty seven set sales in nineteen forty seven compared with one thousand nine hundred ninety four hundred forty six seventy one point six percent of the total nineteen forty seven sales of group were placed in cooperation with the agency field man this figures telegraphic story of the splendid cooperation between the field management division and the group division and contributed to the increased dimensions of metropolitan agents in nineteen forty seven the average income of her agent continued to improve and reached a new high of eighty five dollars and ten cents a liter this figure compares with a two dollars and forty four cents and nine hundred forty six during nineteen forty seven metropolitan continued efforts to improve help this farm of investment has proven sound and has yielded a good return and contributing lives of people in the united states and in canada from the time of the roman empire down to the year nineteen hundred the average length of life increased from twenty two years to about forty nine again at twenty seven years and twenty centuries since nineteen hundred however their average expectation of life has increased to more than sixty six years a rise of about eighteen years in less than half a century metropolitan believes that if the public could be better educated to apply up to date now it's developed by medical science life expectancy could be still further increased help educate the public health and safety metropolitan advertised once a month the national magazines last year which had a circulation of more than thirty three million nineteen forty seven the twenty fifth anniversary of such educational activities through advertising the company also used the radio and nineteen forty seven to bring it to good hands for good health it is interesting to report that during the past year and a half over four hundred thousand requests for copies of metropolitans health booklets have been received interest balance to such programs in new york city another part of health conservation program s metropolitans vesting nursing service designed to help those insured under the company's group there may be at the end industrial policy forty seven are nursing service reached an important milestone and come played in the one hundred million since the inception of the service in nineteen hundred ninety during the year the says made more than one million seven hundred sixty five thousand visits in the nearly seven thousand four hundred coming days in the united states and canada where the service is available that the activities of medical science public health officials and various private organizations have been getting results is obvious from statistical evidence on this chart note the declin death rates from specific causes of death so it's a start of metropolitans first campaign against each cause that's from tyrannous diseases masers scarlet fever hoping cough been some improvement in the death rate from cancer and from diseases of the heart however this is the heart still lead to all causes of death by my team during nineteen forty seven life insurance medical research fund which is maintained by one hundred fifty one life insurance companies including the metropolitan made substantial grants to finance research project relating to the diseases of the heart and blood vessels the growth of life insurance is a tribute to the private enterprise system this has been encouraged by government supervision in accordance with the laws of various states in the united states and similar legislation in canada to help achieve the maximum safety various regulatory laws have been adopted for example new york requires the state insurance department to make an examination every three years the companies domiciled there the insurance department of all states participate it in these examinations through a committee of the national association of insurance commissioners s examination of metropolitan requiring a staff of more than thirty experienced examiners was completed last year it took about a year and a half the examination covered the company's financial position its income and the treatment of its policyholders and many of the principles and practices followed in the conduct of its operations there is also this examination were published last september and fell three hundred three pages there are part contains much interesting information for example let me quote to excerpts from its conclusions the examination of the metropolitan life insurance company indicates that it is on a sound financial condition policy claims are paid promptly and fair and equitable treatment has been accorded policyholders your life insurance companies must submit to the insurance supervisory authorities a full report of their operation metropolitans report for nine hundred forty seven bells about two hundred printed pages each about three quarters of the size of a newspaper page that's reported must account for every penny of income and as well as giving a complete record of our property metropolitans operations are an open book and the company makes every practical effort to have them understood by policyholders and by the public service traditions may be of interest he's here published annual reports as we realize the importance of having those associated with metropolitan understand the offer for asians and the two months of the company during  gives them the interesting picture of the overall basic operations of the company help our policyholders and others to learn about the history of metropolitan and to get them back for some of the current management policies prepared by mark was james the distinguished author and historian rendered by our agent by the staffs of the district offices and by the employees and the head office and in the home office a combined total of more than forty five thousand people frequently we receive commendatory letters from policyholders regarding metropolitan employees we appreciate them and wish it were possible to bring to the writers and in fact all policyholders a picture of the complex organization which is necessary to insure efficient service in order to help the public understand the significance of the efforts of metropolitan personnel and because the read this advertisement without realizing the importance of the day by day contributions which life insurance agents make and the lives of millions of people in some respect our agents are  company to policyholders but without the able services of the employees in the field offices and the home and head offices metropolitan high standards of service would be impossible we really have a great organization and can justifiably be proud of it in fact the growth of the company and public esteem reflects the efforts and loyalty metropolitans men and women nine thousand one hundred ninety one of whom have been in our service for twenty years or more we are looking forward to further progress in the years to come and to the content in the two months of the high ideals of service which metropolitan constantly strives to provide current policyholders  sorry we close the story of our nineteen forty seven story and grateful for the confidence of the authors and for the opportunity to serve them and most appreciate the whole heart