The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-06-19 00:00:00

STANDARD LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY.
A General Meeting of this Company was held at
Edinburgh on Towels, last, to receive a report on
the invenimstion of the company's affairs sad divi-
sion of profits, as at 15th November, IBS& On the
motion of Sir James Y. Simplon, Bart. • W. Smart
Walker, Esq., of lowland, wee called to the chair.
The CHAT ILIIAN, in openinf the muting. elid—We ere
amembled today in a special Emmen,' meeting cithu.
company to conskler • report upon the proems of the
company's basin,., during the five years- Immediately
Preceding the 15th November 1865. and noon the
statutory investigation of our 'affairs, and division of
profits, which takes place Li the conclusion of each
quingennial period of our existence. I shall mien*
request those gentlemen who have presided over the
several departments of inquiry to lay before you the
results of the investigation; at it is proper that I
should explain briefly the nature of the procedure by
which three result. wer• ascertained. Two committees
were appointed by the direaton--one to examine the
investment sesounte and to &mutinies our securitier
the ether to investigate those account& which represent
the company's lie Sties. Each account wu thus ex-
amined by its appropriate committee with the utmost
care, independently and separately ; Led the conchae
'ions to which this marching investigation enabled
us to come are, I am happy to my, highly matistactorfe
These committees were composed of professional gentle- ,
men, thoroughly converant with business transactions I
and matter, of account and legal practice. The labour I
&welted on these committees, you will ruddy believe, I
has been very considerable, end our beet thank, are
&it to the members of the Board who acted on them
for having given their valuable time and attention to
tbe work for • period extending over some months.
Passing from the machinery of Um investigation to its
results, it is my plowing duty to coagratulato you and :
our policybo'ders on the remarkable program which the
oompsny has made daring the past five wa
as noon its extremely favoursble—i I may .tay,
almost unrivalled—position at the present time. The
amount of New A ssuranom effected has risen frotn
: £5OB 854 in 1861, to E 1,374.450 in 1866; end while the
amount of annual premiums which the new business of
1861 yielded was n 6,062, that proctored by the new
loneness of 1665 vu £45,337. These multi have been
attained bye steady perseverance in the liberal but
cautions policy which has always guided the Standard
Company. A similar &drapes in prosperity is Amory.
able in the amount of surplus profit which this investi-
gation enables the directors to recommend for allocation.
on are aware, gentlemen, that during the last two
year., the directors have incorporated with the bean.s
of the PA•ndard, the business of the /ffinseva, the
Victoria, and the Colonial Companies. These males,
unction., you have on former occasions been Informed.
were effected on terms beneficial to this company, audit
will therefore be gratifying to you to learn that the
amalgamated companies are working in the moot antis.
f totory manner. The increase in the business of the
current year down to the present tame amounts to about
£BO,OOO, exclasive of colonial bueincea But while the
directors have .very remon to congratulate the company
upon the acquisition of the busineu end connection of
the institutions named, the question arises whether we
have not now sufficiently extended mossiest in that
way. It would certainly be unwise to bind ourselves
by absolute pledgee in the event of future contingencies
which cannot be foreseen; but it may be assumed that
this institution eequires no such further extension, and
that the director. will now best promote its interest by
striving to develop the company's own resources, end
rendering theme as profitable as they can for the benefit
of all concerned.

In these important items of sums assured. annual re-
venue, and realised feeds, the Standard Company holds
the following position :
The total lam assured is ... £14710,9132
The annual revilium is 661,196
. . -

The airumulated and invested fund is 3,651,683
With these facts before us, I venture to think that
you will not thaws me of having used terms ef extra-
vagant eulogy in the ob'ervations which I have made.
JAWS RAT, Eon., Merchant, Leith.—l have much
pleasure, as chairman of the Invertigation Committee,
In bringing before you a favourable report of the sun.
pany's operations during the five years ended 15th
November, 1855 and beg to congratulate you on the
satisfactory result of the quinquennial investigation of
It. affairs. The chairman of the committee, to whieh
was entrusted the examination of the company's settn•
rities, will satisfy you that the utmost care has been
taken to invest the funds of the company in the moat ex•
ceptumable manner. Higher rates of interest might have
been obtained, had the company extended their trans-
action. beyond the most select class of inveotments,
but the Board have deemed it wiser to run no risks of
any kind to ottain a large ~turn. Still, as our calcula-
tions are based on a very low rate of interest, • Lugo
margin of profit has arisen upon the investments daring
the five years. and has added materially to your divi-
sible surplus. The mortality, although considerably
Leon than that which was provided for by the table. on
which the company's calculations are founded, has been
greater during the lad five years than daring the five
years ended 15th Notymber, 1860, and more especially
during the year* 1864 and 1865; but I believe the Re-
gistrar-General's returns exhibit an increased dsath-rate
during these years throughout the country at large.
The report itself is so exhortative that I need not detain
you with any further remarks, but it is right I should
gate that the manager has submitted his calculations
In such • clear and distinct form, and explained them no
thoroughly, notwithstanding the immense amount of
detail which wee neorerry to bring oat the re=
that the labours of the committee and of the
were greatly lightened.
T. Gamuts MURRAY, Esq., W.B.—lt is now my
duty, aci chairman of the committee appointed to ex-
amine the securities on which your fonds are invested.
to lay the report before you, and it affords me much
pleasure to be able to bring up no sati-factory • state-
ment. The duty of the Securities Investigation Com-
mitt** was twofold,—to revise, if I may use the
expression, *sob particular investment; and to see that
in aggregate amount, and in the details of the various
ewes of investments the whole tallied with the
balanoesheet of the company. This duty, as the report
will tell you, we have been able most satisfactorily to
acoontplish. The great bulk of your securities are
mortgagee on land, or, as we term them in Scotland,
Heritable Bonds, and I do not know any sounder
security. Such security appear now-a-days to be better
than even Goverotnent securities, because, while
yielding • steady return, they are not liable to finottut-
Mon. Some may perhaps think us square-toed and
behind the age that we do not extend our seeuritice
more into other kinds of investments, but the money of
such an inatitntion as this is intrusted to us not, for
speculative purproes, but for steady accumulation ; and
I think you will agree we cannot do better than keep as
much as possible within the cafe limits of landed
seenrities—securities on good broad awes. In theee
days of speculative investmente I believe many cots'
panics and more individuals would with they had
followed our example._ . .

01101111.111 PIAIIBOIII, Esq., C. A . Baling MOO ISOM the
privilege of being present at a quinquennial meeting
for the declaration of a bonus, and this being the sixth
similar occasion niece I became connected with the
company as a shareholder, besides being one of the
assured since 1828, I may be allowed to congratulate
both the aseunnd end ibe proprietors oa the very satis-
factory program made by the Standard Life Assurance
Company during the lad thirty years of it• existence.
I need scarcely say that we are indebted to the great
ability and unwearied seal and activity of the m..nege-
meat for the unexampled success and prosperity of the
company, which is now one of the largest in the kingdom.
As anditor of the company I have had every opportu-
pity of observing its satuiactory program, and I may be
permitted to bear my testimony to the continued
accuracy of all the books and transactions, of which
thorough and detailed examination is made by me every
year. As s member of the investigation oommittee
this quinquennial period, I can also Touch for the care-
fel manner in which the vtlustions and calcalations
necessary to monition the profits have been made ; and,
in particular, I inay mention that in ascertaining the
obligations of the company, under the numerous policies
of assurance, the whole loading. or addition to the pare
premiums, has been thrown off. and the net future
premiums alono have been valued. The mums of a
very large amount of funds has thus been left in the
concern untouched to meet future expenses, and to add
to the pronto to be declared flve years hence. There is
every reason to expect that the prosperity of the com-
pany will continue and Marvin as it has done in times
past, and that the profits to be divided at next quin-
quennial period will at least equal, if not excised, those
declared thit day.

W. T. 'Thomson, Esq., the manager of the oompany,
stated that the voluminous nature of the in on
statement" prevented his doing more thauTtrrtito
them, but the meeting bad the results fully before
them, as certified by him, and corroborated by the in-
veetsgation committee ; and, however unsatisfactory it
might be for an actuary to And, as demonstrative of the
skill and labour employed, that after months of labour
a small slip of paper contained the final result, still the
promes was one of great satisfaction, for et each quin-
quennial period there was a new beginoing, • frmi
account, and there seas the matisfastion of knowing
that the company's affairs had again been proved to he
sound and prmrperous. The manager further explained
that • epeeist investigation had been made into the
company's mortality experience, and he referred to
various statements and diagrams' on the table, but which
time would not admit of his then explaining. Theme
statemecta were—oomparative tables of the actual and
calculated mortality In Scotland, in England, and in
Ireland respectively, among assured lives ; similar
tables under the dames with and without pronto dis-
tinctively; sligilor table" under lives soured more than
5 year. es coeapsrsd with lives mewed lees than it year.;
abso, a epecial investigation of the mortality results
among the company's annuitants. He further e z planed
that these tables referred to the last ten years only,
but that an investigation was now in progrem which
would enable him to report at next general meeting the
moults of the company's experience for the last 40
years. The remelt. so &moralised being to be after-
wards combined with those of the other leading Scotch
offices; Ind ultimately with the results in various lead-
ing English offices, as the groundwork of an inquiry
Into the morality among matured lives generally.
The litramea then drew particular attention to
another most important department of observation, lam
connection with which the company had fat many Jean
enjoyed the valued aid of their eminent physician, Pro-
fessor Christian.

Dr. Csiturnsos's report on the mortality experienced
by t,by Oopiny for ass Teat*, ended November 15,
1885, was then reed.
LAOLUOI Rosserson, Esq., trashier of the Royal
Bank of %Deland, steted he lied been connected with
the Standard Company from ite oontorsooeusent in 18 25,
end bed
erioy,,d au.pie opportunities of studying the
eery remark Is Proems !I bad mods, and also the
venal cars and attention with which the businem had
been conducted. He moved the adoption of the "very
nble and satisfactory report which hod been read"
°somas A. Moos, Fen., aosountent in banirreptt7
for Scotland, setrooded the motion for the approval of
she report : and in doing eo, after reviewing the pro-
gram of the ecompany and its present position, drew
attention to the barman:al adieu of the Standard in
liberalising the conditiosts of the policies of insurance.
It is, I believe, he Meted, a matter of fact, that Mb
company introduced the more liberal codition. of in•
amnia which now prevail very geoerally to the poet
advaotage of the soured. In 1861 the directors
originated the system of select insurances. Awarding
to this system policies, after being in eximeenee Are
yaw, beams hinettellengoeble and entteleenoBo. lent