The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-05 00:00:00

THE ROYAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

The annual general meeting of the shareholders
of this company was held on the 2d inst., at the
company's offices, in North John-street—Charles
Turner, Esq., the Chairman of the company, pre-
siding.
The actuary and manager of the company, Mr.
Percy M.. Dove, first read the advertisement con-
vening the meeting, and subsequently the annual
report, as follows :
REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1860.
" In submitting to the proprietors of the Royal Insurance
Company a report of the business proceedings of the year
1860, the directors desire to avoid any lengthened introduc-
tion, and prefer at once to enter on the subject-matter of
consideration, under separate heads of detail.
4t They commence, therefore, by a reference, in the first
place, to the general progress of the company.
ti This will be found to equal, if not to surpass, any ex-
pectation which could have been formed of it.
" As the success of the company, even in its earliest years,
received the marked attention, and elicited the surprised
comments of writers best acquainted with the history of in-
surance companies, it will not be unadvisable to contrast
the advances anuually made in the years of its then in •
fancy with the increased magnitude of its income at the
period of its present maturity.
"The following brief statement, therefore, founded on a
Comparison made between the revenue of the company in
its various departments for the last year with the revenue
of the first few years of its existence, will very pointedly
exhibit the progress of your business, and is now presented
as worthy of your deepest and most careful attention.
"It is found that the fire premiums of the year 1860
equal the total fire premiums collected for the seven years
from 1845 to 1851 inclusive; that the life premiums of the
same year (1860) exceed the entire life premiums of the
eight years to 1852, inclusive ; whilst the amount received
for the purchase of annuities in that same year alone, is
largely in excess of the total collection on that branch of
business for the first ten years of the company's operations.
"No comment is needed, or would in fact serve to add
force to the exhibition in this paragraph of an amount of
progress which, it is believed is unsurpassed, considering
that it applies with almost equal force and significance to
each of the three branches of the company's business.
" But each requires more particular attention.
FIRE BRANCH.

"The Fire Branch has certainly shown no exhaustion
during the year 1860 of that impetus which had previously
brought it to a position of the first magnitude among the
insurance companies of the United Kingdom. The fire
premiums in 1859 had advanced the sum of £228,314 7s. 3d.
In 1860, the amount of fire premiums has arrived at a sum
of £262,977 19s. 11d., showing an increase of £34,663
12s. Bd., exceeding the large advance of the preceding year,
so that in two years the fire revenue of the company has
been enhanced by the enormous sum of £66,829 17s. sd.
lc The Parliamentary report of returns of duty paid to
Government for the year 1860 exhibits the augmentation of
the business in a more prominent way, as it affords the means
of comparison with other companies. The proprietors will
be gratified to learn that the increase of duty paid by the
Royal in the last year is more than double that of any other
company, either London or provincial, whilst only one
of
those companies even approaches to 50 per cent of
thead-
vance of this company. Our increase actually equals
30
per cent. of the entire increase of the whole of the metro-
politan offices combined, whilst of the provincial offices it
forms upwards of 30 per cent. of the total advance of the
other 28 offices established out of London.
" The report of August, 1860, expressed but little hope of
a successful termination of the year now under investiga-
tion, from the anfavourable aspect which its expired portion
then presented. It happens, however, that the large in-
crease of premium which has been received in the year has
restored the position of the account, and the directors are
enabled unexpectedly to announce a full average result in an
amount of credit to Profit and Loss Account for the year of
£41,067 16s. 3d.

LIFE BRANCH.
" The reports of the company for several years have had
invariably to announce a constant periodical expansion of
its life business, the new policies of each succeeding year
showing an advance over the one that had immediately
preceded it. A similar result is shown in the year 1860,
the premiums on new policies, after deducting guarantees,
being £15,0f9 17s. 10d., which is an increase on that item of
£1,993 17s. sd. above the amount received for the year 1859.
" But even this advance is small when compared with the
sudden and remarkable momentum which has been given to
this branch of the business in the present year (1861).
" It was not until the commencement of the year that the
public seemed to have become fully acquainted with the fact
that the Royal Insurance Company had published late in
the last year an account of the investigation into the assets
and liabilities of the life department, under a novel form,
and in as plain and intelligible a manner as the abstruseness
of the subject admitted, together with the entire statements
and valuations necessary for that purpose.
"It is conjectured from the extensive notices of this
pamphlet and its accompanying diagrams, which have ap-
peared in the periodicals of the day, that it has largely
attracted the attention of vast numbers of persons in all
parts of the United Kingdom, as well as in other
parts of the world. Indeed a most satisfactory and
conclusive that such is the case is afforded by
the fact that the sum assured on new policies
in the six months to the 3d of June in the pre-
sent year is actually 50 per cent. in excess of the sum as-
sured in the corresponding months of the year 1860,
although the latter amount in itself exceeded the sum assured
in any like previous period of time.
" If this success be continued, the Royal Insurance Com-
pany would, with respect to the amount of its new business,
be at once placed (at least with one or two exceptions) at
the head of all the insurance companies doing business in
this country, and the anticipations of the last report, to the
effect that the details of the life business then to be pub-
lished would form an epoch of the establishment, will have
a speedy and very happy realisation.
ANNUITY BRANCH.

" The accession of business in this department has been
already adverted to.
" From the increased applications to the office on this
subject, it would appear that persons contemplating the
purchase of annuities are now more than ever sensible of
the necessity of sinking their money in companies of un-
doubted resources, and where facilities will be honourably
and willingly afforded for the periodical payments to be
made to them wherever the annuitant may be residing.