The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-08 00:00:00

DEPOSIT AND GENERAL `LIFE ASSURANCE
COMPANY.

The first general meeting of the directors and share-
holders of the Deposit and General Life Assurance Com-
pany was held yesterday morning at the company's
offices, No. 18, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars, the Right
Hon. Lord Viscount Drumlanrig, M.P., in the chair.
Mr. C. W. BEIVIN (the secretary) read the advertise-
ment convening the meeting and the report of the direc-
tors, which said :

"In accordance with the provisions of the deed of settle-
ment, you have been summoned here to-day to receive the
report of your directors on the business transacted from the
date of the complete registration of your company to the
31st December last, together with the account of receipts
and disbursements for the same period, which, having been
certified by the auditors, will, it is confidently anticipated,
receive your entire approval; and although, as will be seen,
a period of scarcely six months and eleven days has elapsed
from the date of Mr. Bevan's appointment as secretary, and
which may be justly termed the time when we really com-
menced business, it will be found, on the comparison
which we are about to snake, that an amount of busi-
ness has been done which has greatly surpassed our most
sanguine expectations. Pursuant to the provisions of
the deed of settlement your directors have consulted
their actuary, and he reports that the business done by
the company justifies the declaration of a dividend,
by way of interest upon the paid up capital of the com-
pany, at the rate of 5/. per cent. ' • and the directors
thereupon recommend that a dividend of that amount be
declared up to the 31st December last. Your directors
have much pleasure to report that no claim has arisen from
death up to the present time ; a fact which, considering
the number assured (203), must prove as satisfactory to
the members as it is gratifying to your directors, and which
it is hoped may be taken as an evidence of the care with
which the business has been conducted by your directors,
assisted by the medical officers. Having disposed of those
matters which are provided for by the deed of settlement,
your directors pass with lively satisfaction to other topics
of great interest to the shareholders, the policy-holders,
and the public in general, disclosing as they do the superior
advantages offered by this society to all classes of assurers
—advantages which are not surpassed by those or any as-
surance office in the kingdom ; for not only does this office
carry out all the new improvements in or belonging to other
companies, but it has been expressly established to open a
now era in life assurance, and thereby to offer to the
numerous classes of society who most need, but who have
hitherto been deprived of them, all the benefits arising
from a combination of a savings bank with an assurance
company, namely, by the establishment of the ',deposit
system of life assurance. In setting forth these ad-
vantages, and the consequent claims of your company to
public confidence and support, your directors think it right
that a short statement should be made of the reasons which
induced the establishment of your company. There had •
long been wanting means by which the middle and hum-
bler classes of society might avail themselves of the benefits:
accruing from life assurance, but up to the establishment
of your company no such means existed. It occurred to
the promoters of this system, that an institution which
could combine the advantages of a savings bank with those
of a life assurance company was such as must induce those
classes of society to avail themselves of all the benefits ac-
cruing from life assurance ; and accordingly they consulted
the justly distinguished actuary, Mr. Neison, and after
great care and labour the present system has been produced.
In the ordinary system of assurance (as carried out by
other assurance companies) a person wishing to assure his
life must pay a certain sum, according to the age next
birthday, and if he wishes his family to reap the ad- .
vantage of such assurance whenever he dies, he must
continue regularly to pay the same sum every year, until
death, and then his representatives, and not he, reap
the benefit of it, or perhaps the policy is disputed, and no-
body gets any benefit, but all his savings are lost, anti. his
widow and family deprived of them ; but what has been,
and is justly considered, the worst and most cruel feature,
and the chief obstacle to the universal adoption of assurance'
by that class of society most in need of it, viz., .the middle
and the industrious, is that in the ordinary system if a per-
son fail to continue his payments regularly as they become
due, whether from carelessness, inability, never mind from
what, and however distressing the cause, that moment his
previous payments and hard-earned savings, however large,
become forfeited to the company, and his misfortunes serve
to benefit the pockets of his more fortunate co-assurers.
So, again, if the person assured doubt the solvency of the
office to which he has paid his money, and for that, or any
other reason, desire to withdraw from it, he must also
sacrifice the whole or a very large part of what he may
have paid, and will, of course, from his increased age,
if he wishes to assure in any other office, have to do so
on less advantageous terms. Such is not the case on -
the deposit system, for he can draw out his payments at
any time. The indisputability of policies was the last new
feature in the improvement in life assurance, prior to the
establishment of your company; and the company which
was the first to establish it has received the fair rewird due
to such an improvement. The deposit system is •the next
and by far the most excellent of any improvement, and it
is to be hoped that that class of society for whose benefit
it has been established will give to this company- that sup-
port which the admirable and benevolent principles of this
system so richly merit. By this system the premiums are
always the available property of the assured."

The report,' after giving illustrations of the working
of these principles said—
..
" Having thus briefly stated the chief feature in this com-
pany, the directors refer with satisfaction to the following
statement of the business done, and which, on comparison
with other offices, as hereafter shown, must be highly i
gra-
tifying to all interested in the company, as it sto them-
selves :—From the 20th September, 1852, to the .31st
March, 1853, a period of six and a half months, the
number of proposals received amounted to 344, assuring
155,7721. 10s., of which there had been accepted 203,
assuring 83,490, and producing an income of about
6,0001. per annum ; accepted and not completed 39, assur-
ing 12,1171. 10s.; declined or withdrawn 79, for 42,5951.;
and under consideration 23, f0r,17,570/. Your direc-
tors may also feel justly proud of the- confidence placed
in the company by the public, not only on account of
the large amount of assurance business transacted, but
also that every share in the company has been subscribed
for, with the exception of 1,400. (These have been taken
up since the issue of the report.) The directors are happy
to state that they have secured a lease for 21 years of their
present excellent premises for the small rent of 225/. per
annum, the taxes being likewise very low. Your directors
beg to state that they have succeeded in appointing, and
aro .?.on tinning to appoint, a large number of influential
agenivs throughout the country. In Leeds, Birmingham,
Cornwall, and the West of England, the principles of your
company have met with marked approbation, and have
led to valuable results. Your directors are also happy to
state that in India the deposit feature of your company
has been looked upon as particularly applicable to that
country. Your directors have received the highest tes-
timony to that effect from persons of the first stand-
ing and known judgment there. Your directors can-
not conclude this report without bearing testimony to
the ability, integrity, and untiring energy of their
secretary, Mr. Bevan. Through his exertions and his
connections during the short time he has had the
management of the company, the directors are in-
debted for the rapid disposal of the shares, and the
large amount of business done. Your directors have, also,
to congratulate the company on the acquisition of their
present excellent and noble chairman, for whose constant
presence, attention to the interests of the company, and
business-like habits, your directors cannot feel too deeply
indebted, and which the shareholders and members cannot
too highly appreciate. In conclusion, your directors beg
to state that it will be their constant study to conduct the
affairs of the company in such a manner as to merit the
approbation-of the policyholders and shareholders, and the
public in general. Your directors beg also to state that,
being anxious to court the strictest investigation into the
solvency of the company, as well as into its principles,
and-
particularly into its new feature, the deposit system,
have instructed the secretary to write to Mr. NVilson,
M.P., and request the favour of his being examined re-
lative to this company by the committee of the House of
Commons which has been appointed to investigate as-
surance companies. Your directors have only to add that
they hope to receive, in the discharge of their onerous duties,
the cordial co-operation of every one interested in the com-
pany, and trust that each policyholder and shareholder
will determine to bring one policy at least per annum,
which would be sufficient of itself to make any company."
A. balance-sheet was also read, which showed that the re-
ceipts from premiums had been as follows :—ln September,
811. 12s. 10d. ; October, 1341. 9s. 11d. ; November; 3281.
2s. 2d. ; December, 4891.135. 10d. ; January, 2721.185. ld.;
February, 3371. 4s. ld. ; and March, 8701. 6s. 2d. The
total receipts from all sources to the 31st December were
6,966/. ss. ld., and the expenditure (including preliminary
. expenses, calculated to run over two years, of 2,5000,
4,0011. 13s. id.

The CHAIRMAN said it now became his duty to move
the adoption of the report, and he could assure them
he would, in discharging that duty, address them but
very briefly. On the first occasion of meeting the pro-
prietors, it would ill become him to make a speech or
enter into details which, upon coming before the world,
should appear like a puff. Their report would speak
for itself ; and he thought they might well challenge
inquiry into their position and prospects from the
plain unvarnished tale it told. He hoped they would
all agreed with him as regarded the satisfactory na-
ture of the report. The accounts were made up
to the 31st December—about the time when he first took
his seat at the board—and he was, therefore, now speak-
ing of matters beyond his control ; but from the inter-
course ho had had with his brother directors since joining
the board, and his knowledge of them, ho was perfectly
ready to take his share of the responsibility attaching to
those accounts. (Cheers.) In drawing up the report,
and laying the accounts at the present time before the
public, they, of course, laboured under some disadvan-
tage upon the present occasion, in consequence of the
short time this company had been established ; and that
disadvantage would have almost equally attended them
whether their accounts had been made up to the 31st De-
cember or 31st March, though their business had made
great progress during the past three months. Their ex-
penditure was necessarily comparatively high as com-
pared with their receipts, they having been, during the
months of May, June, July, and August, incurring ex-
penses in the formation of the company, whilst they did
not commence business until September last. Of course,
when their business first commenced, it was not very
whereas
atshat
theirit hadre
receipts
igpotns gone
inongra dllv
"
hn eg waa so
that,gla d two
:1)71 lrgi ne,c rbeuast
Septem-
ber were only 811. 12s. 10d., they amounted in March
to 8701. 6s. 9d. He considered that a
statement to have to make, and he hoped most gratifying
that the results
of each month would continue to i
doubt they would. At the same
increase, as he had no
ame time, he could assure
them that the directors were
most
do all in their power, to conduct the
anxious, and would
le affairs of the com-
pany with the utmost econorn
ciency of the office. Allusio yhcodnsistent with the effi-
port to the fact that •n a been made in the Mr. Wilson to allowan application had been made to
Mr. Bevan to be
examined before.
the committee of the
House of Commons on life assu-
rance. As a good deal of jealousy •
existed with respect
to new
_assurance offices, and as some were thought to
deserve reproach, the directors were anxious that both
Mr. Bevan and their actuary (Mr. Neison) should be ex-
amined before the committee, in order that their preten-
sions and prospects might be submitted to the fullest in-
vestigation, it being to their own interest, if fallacies
existed in their calculation; to have them corrected.
He should use his influence with Mr. Wilson to have
those gentlemen examined ; but as of course there