The Express.
London, England, 1865-03-03 00:00:00

INSURANCE

THE GO'

REGULATIONS.

The tables which were isaued last week, and of
which we gave an explanation in our impression of
the 22nd February, contained the rates of pay-
ment to be made by persons of various ages, in
order to insure either a sum payable at death, or
an annuity payable during life. The rules which
are to guide applicants for such insurances, and
the directions for the Poet-office officers by whom
the arrangements are to be carried out, together
with an appendix of forms, have now been issued
in the shape of a paper presented to Parliament.,
and which may be purchased by the public for
aixpenoe. We shall endeavour to explain the
nature of the system which is thus to be put in
operation. . . .

The sum to which payments, either made at
once, or extending through a limited or an un-
certain number of years, will amount at death is,
as we have seen, on an average perfectly fixed
and known. So also the amount of annuity
which can be granted during the remainder
of a life, in consideration either of a
single payment, or of payments during the years
before the annuity begins, is also on an average
quite ascertained. But in both cases it is ewer-
tained on the average of • number of ordinary
healthy lives not subject to be prematurely cut
short either by disease or accident. It is in such
cases only that we can fairly speak of an average,
or make any calculation of probable life founded
on an average, for it is at once evident that if
there is any circumstance of health or avocation
which makes a shorter life probable, such a life
has no claim to make a bargain on the footing that
it is likely to be of the usual length. Therefore,
in all insurance companies, when any one proposes
to insure his life, the practice is to require the
proposer to answer minute questions as to his
general health, both at the time, and at every
previous period, as to whether he has ever had
symptoms of heart disease, of consumption, or of
some other generally f►tal maladies; as to what
the health of his father and mother, brothers and
sisters, has been, and whether any of them have
died from such maladies ; as to his own habits of
eating and drinking, and taking exercise. Ile is
then required to furnish the name of his regular
medical attendant, and of one or more intimate
personal friends, and to each of these the insurance
office addresses a confidential paper of written
inquiries respecting the health and habits of the
proposer. Finally, he is required to undergo a
minute medical examination by the physician of
the company. Of course, also, he is required to
furnish strict evidence of his age, since, assuming
that he is passed as of average health, it is his age
that determines the amount of premium that he
will have to pay.
Precautions like these cannot be neglected by
government, when it undertakes the business of
life insurance, unless it is to be the butt of every
species of fraud. But the regulations it has
adopted are in no respect more stringent, while in
some they are less rigid, than those which would
be applied to a Baring or a Rothschild if be were
to desire to insure his life with any ordinary
office. It is important that this should be under-
stood, that working men may not be startled by the
application to them of inquiries which may seem
curiously inquisitive, but which are necessary to
prevent the practice of insurance from being a
dead loss„to the body which undertakes it.
The Government system is to be worked en-
tirely through the Post-offices. Every Money-
order Office and such other offices as the Post-
master-General may appoint, are to be entitled to
transact insurance business. On presenting him-
self at one of these offices (as soon as the regula-
tions have come into operation), the applicant for
insurance will be furnished with a printed form,
containing the questions which he has to answer.
They call for a statement of his name, occupation,
place of birth, and age, the amount for
which he wishes an insurance, whether he is
married, whether his father and mother are dead,
and, if dead, what was their age and the cause of
their death, the like information respecting brothers
and sisters ; bow long the applicant has followed his
present occupation, and what previonsoccupation he
followed ; whether he has been off work from bed
health within the last two years ; whether he is a
member of any friendly society, or sick or burial

club, or has insured his life in any oil*, or Wen"
rejected by any office ; wbetheir slaberTtottat
been vaccinated, has ever lived hut clit the
Kingdom, has suffered frosa any aMMs~rt, or
small pox, palsy, disease of heart or lungs, or
other organ ; who has attended him when ill, and
whether any relation has suffered from snob dis-
cuss. The applicant is also to furnish the name
of his present or late employer, and of two re-
spectable householders to whom he refers. The
postmaster is to read over all these questions to
him, and to see that he understands them, and
then the applicant is to sign his proposal, contain-
ing the answers, and a solemn declaration that they
are true, in the postmaster's presence. He is also to
furnish evidence of his age, in the form, if he is a
native of England or Wales, born after 30th June,
1 1837 (at which date the new system of registration
of births came into play), of a certificate of his
birth from the Registrar-General, or the district

registrar, a document which may be procured for
a few shillings. If not a native of Eagland or
Wales, or born prior to the above date, he must
produce, if possible, a certificate of birth or
baptism from a parish register ; if he cannot, he
must state what is the beet evidence of his age
that he can offer, leaving to the Postmaster.
General to judge whether it can be accepted as
sufficient. _ _ .

-----
The proposal and evidence of age is then to be
transmitted by the postmaster to the authorities
in London, together with a statement by the post-
master himself as to whether he knows the appli-
cant and his referees personally, end whether his
apparent age and appearance of health tally with
the statements made in the proposal paper. From
London a letter of inquiry will next be addressed
to the applicant's referees, in which they will be
asked to furnish, confidentially, answers to ques-
tions respecting the health and habits of the appli-
cant similar to those which the applicant has
himself answered in his proposal form, and for
security against collusion the referees are re-
quested to sign their answer in the presence of
a clergyman of any denomination or a magis-
trate, who will witness their signature and tes-
tify to their identity. For further security, a
letter will also be sent to the applicant's em-
ployer, who will merely be asked to say whe-
ther such a person is or was in his employ-
ment, whether he has been sober, and whether
he has ever been cif work from illness.

It appears to be intended that, if the answers
to these inquiries, and the report of the post-
master, are satidactory, no medical examination
shall, as a rule, be required. But the Postmaster-
General has power, "if he thinks lit," to direct
the applicant to present himself for examination
by a legally qualified medical practitioner, to be
named by the Postmaster-General. In this case
the medical examiner will put a further series of
inquiries to the applicant, will require him to sign
his answers, and will forward them, along with his
own report, to the London authorities. With
them rests the ultimate decision whether the appli-
cation for insurance shall be granted or not. If
granted, it will either be, if the life appears an
average one, at the ordinary rates of premium
contained in the published tables, or if
it appears to be attended with any cir-
cumstances of unwind risk, at • higher
rate, to be fixed according to the particular
case. In all cases, a person following the occupa-
tion of a miner or butcher, or innkeeper, publican,
or beeraeller, or sailor, or any other occupation of
special risk to life, will be required to pay an
extra rate. Of course, if the applicant objects to
such extra rate, he may abstain from completing
the proposal. But if the contract is entered into,
it will be, firstly on the express understanding that
all the statements the applicant has made about
himself are true, and that if any of them are found
to be false be shall forfeit not only the sum in-
sured, but also all sums he has already paid ; and
secondly,that if at any time he shall take up a trade
of special risk, or go beyond the limits of Europe, or
go on the high seam, except in time of peace, in
passing from one part of Europe to another, or
shall become a soldier, he shall give notice of his
so doing, and pay such extra premiums as may be
required, or else forfeit his interest. So, too, if he
dies by his own hands or the hands of justice the
insurance shall be absolutely forfeited.

Subject to these conditions, the contract will be
completed by the issuing to the applicant of •
document stating them, and signed by an officer
appointed by the Postursater-General. This will
be handed to the applicant (whom we shall now
call the insured) by the local postmaster to whom
he applied, and on receiving it he must pay the
first premium due. And if he has selected the form
of insurance in which the premiums are to be paid
either annually or at more frequent intervals, be
will receive a book in which the receipt of eaah
successive premium will be marked by the post-
master to whom it is paid. He can have the
transaction of this business transferred to any
other office on giving notice, in a form to be ob-
tained at the office. The premiums must in all
cases be paid in the course of the week in which
the day falls when they are due; and if default is
made beyond the end of that week the insurance
is forfeited, but it may be renewed if within four
weeks application is made, and the Postmaster-
General thinks fit to grant the request, with or
without a further medical examination, and on
payment of • fine of 4s. to Ba. If the insured
after payment of premiums for five years desires to
renounce the contract, a return will be made him
of not less than one-third of the premiums he has
paid, but it may be a larger sum, as the regula-
tions on this head are not yet determined. And
be may after the same lope° of time assign the
benefit of the insurance to any other person.
On the death of the insured, his representatives,
or, if he had assigned the insurance, his assignee,
will transmit to the Postmaster-General probate
of the will, or letters of administration, or the
assignment, together with a certificate of the death,
and • declaration made before a justice of the
peace, by some one not interested in the insurance,
statingthat the person whose death is proved was the
insured person. On being satisfied with this evi-
dence the Postmaster-General will send a war
rant for payment of the amount at the local post
office, on production of the contract and the receipt
book.

The steps which we have thus detailed as news-
aary to be gone through in the case of an insu-
rance payable on death, are in a great measure
similar to those which must be taken in order to
obtain an annuity payable during life. There
must be a proposal (in a form to be obtained at a
money order office) stating the age and trade of
the applicant, and of the person for whom it
is desired, the amount desired, the time at
which it is to commeoce, whether it is to be an
annuity paid half•yearly, or an allowance paid
weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, and a referenoe
to two householders and to the employer.
The same evidence of age must also be furnished
as in the cue of an insurance on the life. Bat
' there is this material difference in the cue of the
purchase of an annuity, that no evidence of health
or habits is required, since evidently whatever
may shorten the life is in this =MI productive of a