The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-13 00:00:00

NATIO AL LOAN FUND LIFE AS-
SURANCE AND DEFERRED ANNUITY SO-
CIETY.

The Annual Meeting of the above Company was held
at the London Tavern, on Wednesday last. At half.
past one o'clock the Directors entered the room, and Mr.
LAXIE MURRAY, t0446.4he Chair.
After the advertiseitent calling the meeting had been
read,

The CHAIRMAN said—Gentlemen, before the Report
which the Directors have prepared is laid before you,
I beg to make a few observations ; and, first, on the part
of the Directors, I have to express their great pleasure
in again meeting the Proprietors. The Report itself
embodies the sentiments of the Directors on all the topics
therein discussed, or upon which they have felt it their
duty to bring before your notice. I will, therefore, not
detain your longer than to request the Secretary to read
it to you, and calling your attention to it.
The SECRETARY (Mr. FERGUSON CAMEROUX) then
read the following Report :
" THE SECOND ANNUAL REP.ORT OF THE
DIRECTORS OF THE " NATIONAL LOAN
FUND LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY," TO THE
PROPRIETORS. MAY 12, 1841.
The Directors have to express their gratification, in,
meeting for the second time the Proprietors, on the re-
currence of the Annual General Meeting of the Society.
' Before the year 1843 it will not be the duty of the
Directors to place the accounts, calculations, and profit
and loss of the Society, before the Proprietors and the
public. The deed of settlement provides that this
account shall be - rendered at that period. Had
it been deemed expedient to have prepared a
statement at this early period, since the commencement
of the Society, the Directors had the power to have
done so in the present year. But inasmuch as it would
have involved a decision with regard to bonuses to the
policy-holders, which must follow after the first investi-
gation of the business of the Society, the Directors have
deemed it more prudent, notwithstanding their own
wishes to expose the successful working of the Society,
to await the greater experience, which the period pro-
vided for by the deed will afford them, in declaring
its first bonus, and on which so much of its immediate
future success will depend.
Since the period of the last meeting, several causes
acting on the public mind, have produced impression:
unfavourable to the general extension of the principles
of life assurance. Notwithstanding this, the progress ol
the " National Loan Fund Society," has been steady and
uninterrupted. Of these causes, it appears to the
Directors that two leading ones have mainly
.contributed to increase the inaptitude of the public
towards investments in Life Assurance, as provision for a
family. The first is, however, but of a temporar.l
nature—it refers to the sudden appearance and disap-
pearance of schemes of Life Assurance Societies, which
have either become immediately 'extinct, or merged.
after the lapse of some time, into other Com-
panies. The second is the tendency that has mani-
fested itself within the last few years towards
lower rates of premium than had heretofore been
considered prudent. The competition which has existek
in this respect has given rise to discussion, and a re-ac-
tion has been created in favour of rates, that experience
had proved to be safe and well-founded. While, unques-
tionably, the rates of premium, calculated on the
Northampton tables of mortality, are found by the
experience of the Societies themselves who have
adopted them, to be too high for the contingencies
of hfe—it must be admitted there should be a limit, be-
, low which it would not be safe to go, even in adoptim-
more correct data of mortality than the Northampton
tables exhibit. This is a subject that cannot be at -
proached with too much gravity, as involving the deeper:
considerations. The more it is discussed, and the limit'
of premium within which an office can fulfil all its en-
gagements, fixed satisfactorily to the public mind, the more
will it increase the number of those who, by means of Life
Assurance, seek to provide for a family. No one is so
much interested as the policy-holder himself, that the
rates which he pays to an office for his protection, shall
be adequate. It was after the maturest reflection, and a
lengthened investigation on the subject, not-
withstanding the tendency which prevailed at the
period of the formation of the " National Loan
Fund Society," that its present rates of premium
were determined upon. The tables of the Society were
calculated by its eminent actuary, Mr. Woolhouse, from
original data arrived at by an adjustment of the irregu-
larities of the Carlisle tables, combined with the valu-
able experience of the " Equitable " and other tables of
mortality on which former calculations had been based..
Connected with this subject, the Directors see with
great satisfaction at the present moment, the announce-
ment of a Committee of the House of Commons, the re-
sult of whose investigations will, it is hoped, be a guide
to popular opinion on a subject on which there prevails
so great a diversity of feeling ; judging from the diffep
ence in the rates of premiums considered safe by different
Life Assurance Establishments.
There is yet another subject of equal value to tilt•
policy holders the careful selection of lives. To the im-
portance of this point in the management of the business,
the Directors have paid the most watchful attention. So
far in this respect the Society has been fortunate. Ou.
of the whole numbei- of policies issued by the Society
only 11 of them have become claims. The total numbei
of policies issued by the Society now amounts to 1,611.
which gives an increase on the year of 381.
The present annual income of the Society-, derived from
premiums on existing policies, and its investments, is
equal to 22,5001.
The claims paid by the Society since its commence-
ment on eleven policies amount to 5,5991. 195., and the
sum received on short and lapsed policies, on which no
claims can accrue, amounts to 4,489/. 7s. 7d. The lam r
result satifactorily proves an increase in the business of
the Society on short risks since the publication of tables
marked A and.B in the Prospectus, which are highly
favorable to assurers for temporary purposes.
The total number of shares disposed of amounts to
19,813, and on which the sum of 44,579/. ss. has been psis'
The increasing business of the Society and the ac
me.
mulation of its funds, besides the burthen to the policy-
holders of too large a paid-up capital, has induced the
Directors, at the pressing instance of several influentia:
parties interested in the Society, to consider the pro-
priety ofrecommending to the Shareholders the conversion
of the capital into shares of 201. instead of IW. each, the
present nominal amount of each share. This recommen-
dation, which the Directors now make, has for its object
the giving increased value to the stock, inasmuch as thf
one-third of the profits on the business of the
Society, which belongs to the Proprietors (besides
five per cent. on the actual paid up capital), would then.
be divided on 62,5001. of stock, instead of 112,5001.,
the sum originally intended to be called up, while
the amount of subscribed capital, and the semis ry to the
assured would remain the same. Thus, without any
further payment being made on the 20/. shares, in ad-
dition to that already paid on the 10/. shares (except flat
sum of ss. per share, in respect to prelimin kry experea s,
provided for in the deed of settlement), the interest co
each Proprietor in the profits of the Company will be
nearly doubled.
The Directors have availed themselves of the occasion
of the General Meeting to place this recommendation
before the Proprietors for their approbation. At the
same time, in the event of that, it will require the signa-
ture of each Proprietor to a short deed, which the Di-
rectors have ordered to be prepared for the purpose.
The Directors cannot close their Report without ad-
verting to the difficulties they have met with in extend-
ing the efficient agency of the Society. A ver)
great part of the country yet remains unoccu-
pied by any of its branches or agencies. The
Directors have always felt unwilling to commit the Soci-
ety into inefficient hands, and have been careful to select .
only such individuals as agents who, joined to respecta-
bility, had the leisure and activy, besides a true appre-
ciation of the extent to which, with' the requisite perse-
verance, the principles of the Society could be worked in
every district of the country. The Directors are happy
to say they can reckon many such individuals amongst
the•agents of the Society, and who are now re Ting the
fruits of their perseverance ; but there yet exists a
great space where similar talents could be employed with
great benefit to its interests.
The business to be transacted at the present meeting
is the election of four Directors in lieu of
JOHN ELLIOTSON, M.D., F.R.S.
GEORGE LUNGLEY, Esq.
CLEMENT TABOR, Esq., and
whose
eligible pteor iboedr
re-,
JOSEPH nosiesoN, Esq.,
and
ds
offerexpired
themselves al o Ca,
nwcolr,odinm,:irey.
efleocffitecde,T
The election of one Audit
or in place of
Professor WHEATSTONE, F.R.S , whose term of office
has expired, and who is also re-eligible, and offers him-
self accordingly.
The Directors have to propose
JOHN RIDDELL STODART, Esq., for election
thetor,Court, and
as a Dire ctor, o for the confirmfation of the appointment by
JOHN GRIFFITH FRITH, Esq., and •
the election as tn
Auditor, of
Professor GRAVES, AM. F.R.S., in place of the late
lamented Dr. OLINTHUS GREGORY.
T. LAMIE MURRAY. Chairman."
The Report having been read,
The CHAIRMAN said—lf any Proprietor should now
wish to address any observations to the meeting, or re-
quire any explanations from the Directors, I shall be
happy to hear him.
The Cstatamals—Since no Proprietor wishes to put
any question, it will now be my duty to move that
" the' Report now read be adopted by the meeting,
printed, and distributed to the Proprietors. Before doing
so; 'I would beg to call your attention to some of its state-
ments. It is not my intention to detain you by any
lengthened observations ; the Report speaks for itself.
One thing you will find stated in it, and that
is, out of the whole number of policies issued
—..tiamely, 1,611, only 11 of them have become
claims on the Society, to the extent of 5.599/. 195., but
there is another point that is not stated in it, but on which
I can now afford you information, and that is, the num-
ber of lives that, according to the calculations of
the Society, should have dropped, and the sum the So-
ciety should have paid if the selection of lives, they
have made, had not been better than the average expec-
tation—that, however, I learn from the Actuary, should
have been 23, and the sum that we expected to have
been called on to pay, 12,1801. I think I may, therefore,
with confidence claim for the Directors the credit of pru-
dent deliberation on every risk that is accepted,
on the part of the Society. Indeed :we have been fre-
quently blamed for our caution; but when it is considered
how deeply interested those are who assure with the So-
ciety in this respect, I think I am warranted in saying
that such circumspection is valuable. The Report refers
to the discussion there has been for some time
Carried on on the sufficiency of rates of pre-
um-- Undoubtedly the tendency his been for some
y ears past towards tow rates, and it appears as if there
Were uadue competition la this reved. WINO Oats