The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-09 00:00:00

ASSURANCE AND INSURANCE.

LrrTER 111.
A FM GOOD OFFICES.
-•
To the Editors.

_
Tit LOOKING through the papers that continue to
arrive from various offices, it is manifest that where the
most commendable features am:mend success, the
Scotch offices, generally speaking, are the public
favourites. Thus to go as far north as possible—the
NORTHERN ASSURANCE COMPANY, entablislud in 1836,
and incorporated under its own special Act of Perla%
mete, announces that in consequence of the magnitude
to which the business of its London office bas attained,
It his been found advisable to confer on the London
branch the statue and privileges of a head office. This
'mild only be done by applying to Parliament for a new
Act, of which advantage would appear to have been
also taken to alter, amend, and consolidate the com-
pany's previous Acts and contract of copartnery. The
fact is that the concern is very important. The capital
is £2,000,000; the accumulated fund upwards of
, £700,000; the annual revenue from fire £150,000; and
' that from life, 4'80,003. The "Northern" flourishes,
' therefore, mainly as a fire office; and it is fire offices
that, owing to the recent movement in the Public Ex-
chequer, most attract the popular notice at the present
moment. Every one is inquiring how will the
remission of fire duty affect them, and how will it
affect the public? Favourably, I think it may be re-
sponded, both ways. These fire offices, you see, keen
as may seem to be their competition, work in
concert with each other, and mutually divide their
greater risks, so that like some rival railway lines that
appear to be running against each other, it makes little
difference which you patronise, because of every half-
ewes in your fare, by either line, fifteen-pence goes to
each company, share and share alike. The" Northern,"
id • proprietory company, pays the handsome eivideud
of ten per cent, to its shareholdere ; but whilst
dividing some £B,OOO annually in this way, it carries
at the came time £ll,OOO or £12,000 to its reserve
fund, and by that means commands the public confi-
dence. There is that in the Scotch character which emi-
nently adapts Scotch offices forattainingsuch • position
in the public favour. The ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH
LAW LIFE presents another example of prudential
nasmagement and success in another department. With
Boards at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and in London, it is, as
far as business is concerned, fully as much, perhaps, a
Glaegow as an Edinburgh office. It was first established
in 1869, with a proprietory capital of £1,000,000, the
pr dire being ascertained every five years, and of these
the assured are afforded nine-tenths. The office has
thus existed twenty-five years, and is at this moment
approaching one of its quinquennial periods; the inves-
tigation in fact takes place at Christman this year, 1865.
The present, therefore, is the time for securing early
participation; and I really believe the Proprietor,
offices when they say that if they divide so much Is
nine-tenths of their profits amongst the assured, they
undoubtedly divide more than Mutual societies, proffer.
sing that the whole profits nominally belong to the
policy holders. One great inducement to new entrants
is held out by this office—its mode of apportioning the
profits is opposed to every form of the Tontine system,
whereby the greater share of profits falls to the older
members to the prejudice of the new, which accounts for
the enormous increase of amounts sometimes boasted of
in certain policies. Still the examples given of bonus
additions actually made under the three divisions
of profits (1846, 1853, and 1860), that have already
taken place at this office are excellent, and
the beauty of them is that they are not deferred, but
vest immediately on declaration, To speak now of
some good English offices—the EQUITABLE SOCIETY,
established upwards of a century, as it was one of the
first, is one of the best and most uniformly successful
of the Mutual offices, having since its commencement
issued above forty thousand policies, and paid thirty-
three millions sterling in claims, bonuses, &a., (sixteen
millions and a half on account of bonuses.) Its
capital and investments are somewhat formidable. It
has £1,440,000 in the three per cents.; £2,908,372 cash
on mortgage; £540.000 advanced on debentures, and
£144,050 on security of policies—making considerably
upwards of five millions of investments. It may be
interesting to know how such a society is consti lilted and
controlled. Every person insuring for £2,000 may
attend the General Courts of the Society, and is eligible
for the office of Auditor; but the qualification for the
offioe of Director is an assurance of not less than £5,000.
The division of the profits is only decennial— once every
ten years; but an annual addition is always ordered
upon policies that become claims in the interval. The
next periodical investigation on the " Equitable" i 8 in
1870. The EQUITY AND LAW Life Assurance, though
on a smaller scale, has been more expressly devised to
render its policies in the hands of third parties perfectly
good securities—they are not vitiated for instance by
errors regarding age, by suicide, or travel beyond the
prescribed limits. Its tables of bonuses are particularly
good; and it is agreeable to learn that the principal
sources of these large profits me to be traced in the
economy of management, the high rate of interest
realised on the investments, and the low rate of mortality
experienced amongst the lives assured. In this last
respect it seems the society has been remarkably fortunate
—not half the "claims" that might have been anticipated
having emerged against them for many years. This is
a thing that to the general mind would seem "as broad
as it is long" (to indulge in a oom mon phrase,) and indeed
the actuary (Mr. Sprague) remarks "It is of course
impossible to say how long this immunity from heavy
claims easy last." But the public may here discover
the secret of the struggle for now business incumbent
on Insurance Offices, and the neeessity for their coming
to you and such as you to advertise their merits, and
make their advantages known. Were an office in the
above condition to rest contented with past success the
tables would soon be turned upon it. The outstanding
claims might emerge all together within a mere speck
of time and overwhelm it. The push for new
business, combined with the care exercised by the
Directors in the acceptance of proposals therefore saves
the concern, and in fact it is the interest of the insuring
public to aid and abet in doing no by throwing in their
contributions so as to maintain offices in a state of con-
tinuous suocem. Another element of success in this
" Equity and Law" society is however the high class to
which the majority of their assured belong—as indicated
by the fact of the policies in force averaging £1,154 eaittb,
and the average on each life being considerably larger.
The support of the legal profession appears likewise to
obtain for this society an unusually high rate of interest
upon good securities. In contrast to these high class
acid professional offices, I shall only for the present
further allude to some popular offices and have
done. When some one 'designated your system of
newspapers as "popular papers" the enemy not
comprehending the force of the term sneered away
at the word "popular," although be now begins to see
and even to feel what it implies. Very well the
extract which appeared in your columns, as to " Who
was Whittington?" Is in point of fact an extract from
the prospectus of one of those popular offices. I sent
it to you as Dickens sent out on the walls " Lirriper's
Legacy" and " Lirriper's Lodgings," and as the show-
man placards the towns with " Bosco's aiming." The
Whittington aims at extreme popularity. Its great
authority on the blessings of Life Assurance is no other
than the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. _
Its standing
n-"-itor-General, .5' and

mum! are the Solicit__ Sir.
Air. Pope of the United Kingdom Alliance. It offers
all the most novel advantages, including four-fifths (or
eighty par omit.) of profits to the assured„..and insures
teetotalers in a distinct section giving them the benefit
of their supposed immunity from disease. The BRITON
MEDICAL and GENZRA.L LIFE ANIOCIATION is estab-
lished to meet the great difficulties involved in attain•
jog policies absolutely indisputable sod payable during
lifetime. I behove it is to the "Briton" we may
attribute the practical origin of this last feature, lately
described by me in connection with another office; for
I find a very clever little pamphlet of which the third
edition is before me, entitled "An explanation of the
new feature introduced by the 'Briton' by which life
assurance policies are made payable during the life of
the assured." I had still some other offices on the books
for general notice—but they must be reserved as my
next may be a special notice of a Hail Storm Insuranoe.
CALCULUS.
Newspaper Press Training College, May 9.