The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-30 00:00:00

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naming the office I ILM myself connected with al-
though I have full confidence in its stability, and
every hope of its future success. Some of your
readers will no doubt remark that some offices are
much more advantageous to Assure in than others,
inasmuch as the one has been much more successful
than the other. For example, office A has been
much longer in existence and more fortunate in the
selection of their lives, and has consequently de-
clared much larger bonuses than office B. Granting
this to be the case, that the past experience of A has
been more favourable than that of B, nevertheless
it does not follow that A's future experience shall be
the same, it is quite poesible that it may be the re-
verse and that B may prove the more favourable of
the two for the next 40 or 60 years, therefore as it
is to the future we must look when about to insure,
it can matter little which of the two OfEOOll we em-
bark in provided both be sound, in which case the
future advantage of each cannot materially differ.
It is not always; the safest office that declares the
largest bonuses, as my experience has proved the
reverse in many instanoes. Cases have 001110 under
my observation where comparatively young com-
panies have actually borrowed money to divide
amongst their assured as a last effort to obtain
business by endeavouring to gain public confidence
by this mode of deception when the society is
absolutely on the verge of insolvency. This then
shows how very cautious the public ought to be in
forming their judgment on the aounduess of offices
from the oomparative magnitudes of the business
they declare. In making these remarks I wish your
readers to understand that I charge no respeotable
company with resorting to this mode of gettiag
business, but on the contrary I have every reason to
believe that the handsomehinusee from time to time
declared by the Scottish Widows Fund, Edinburgh,
Royal, and other bona fide offices of tried stability
are the results of the calculations of some of our
most talented and practical actuaries, wham
,judg-
ment in such matters cannot be gainsaid, and whose
honour would not suffer them to recommend a
surplus for allotment that would have the remotest
tendency to damage the safety of the society. I say
therefore in conclusion to such of your readers as
may be about to insure, do so without hesitation in
any of the offices I have named, or in any other free
from the objections I have enumerated, which is •
sure criterion of its respectability, and if it has not
been so successful as some of its competitors, it must
not be attributed to reckless management or want
of promptitude in paying its claims, but rather to
save unfavourable and unforeseen circumstances
which have occurred affecting it. operations in some
way or other, which every company is subject to.
Neither is the largest company necessarily the
West, for it must be borne in mind that the larger
the increase is, the larger are its liabilities and if the
general average of the risks of the larger of the two
companies be not so well selected as those of the
smaller, the latter society may be reasonably con-
sidered the safer of the two COderid paribus.
It is true that the larger of two companies is
generally in a better position to obtain business than
the smaller, and with proper management the rate of
its working expenditure will be less. For example,
two companies A and B, A being the greater, are
in full Working operation, both catering for the
same kind of risk and in all respects working under
precisely similar circumstances—l say that with
judicious management the company A Can procure
business in a faster ratio, and at a lesser rate of ex-
penditure than company B. This suggests to one's
mind the enquiry, within what limits a company can
do dominoes with equal safety to the office and the
assured, and I should be glad if any gentleman would
take the subject up for consideration, and favour
your readers with a few observations thereon in
your columns, as the question ii one of considerable
interest and inspormace.
69, Gernhill, London, KC.
WM. CURTIS OTTER.

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