, 1867-05-07
Post Magazine + husarance Monitor, April LAY
ADMISSION OF AGE.

llNtS tlC1 uSSulC' OlI OQlIlIuhtCSA "
quire in every case that the correctness
Of the statement of age made should be
verified, sooner or later, before the
amount assured is paid. Other Compa-
MES accept the statement made as cor
rect, and only require proof in the event
of circumstances creating the suspicion
that the assured was really older than as
stated in the proposal. All Companies,
however, will endorse a life policy adj
hitting the age of the assured life, on be-
ing supplied with reasonable evidence of
the date of the birth. This admission of
age precIudes all future question, and no
further evidence will be called for at a
future time.
1t is desirable both on account Of the
Office and Of the assurer that the age
should be admitted on the policy. On
the office account it is desirable, because
mistakes in age are frequent, and if
evidence is not in every case required, it
can only be by an accident that the inae-
curacy can he discovered. The Office
may therefore, in many instances, suffer
a loss of premium by assuring the life at
a lower rate than the age warrants.
Again, to raise a question of age after the
death of the person assured, when per-
haps great difficulty may arise in obtain
ing the requisite proof is apt to create a
certain amount of irritation against the
Office in the mind of the claimant of the
money, Notwithstanding that the require
ment may he perfectly fair and legitimate.
Disreputable Companies, whose funds
have been low, and who have been driven
to extremities to find means to meet their
losses, have from time to time resorted to
the practice of raising objections to pay
ments on trivial grounds and the public
generally is apt 10 view with jealousy any
obstacle to a prompt settlement, however
reasonable the requirement which forms
the obstacle may be.
The de>irabilily to the assurer of having
the age admitted is obvious. The con-
tract Of assurance Of course has its basis
on the statements made to the Company
at the time the risk is undertaken ; it is
therefore essentially necessary that the
statements should be correct. While no
respectable Company would take advant-
age of an error in age to repudiate an in
surance, it would be but common justice
TO all 10 require satisfactory evidence in
the event of a doubt arising. In the event
of error, the Company would probably
require the difference of premium, with
interest, to be allowed from The amount
assured, which, although a very liberal
and honorable act on the part of the
Company, is an undesirable demand 10 be
made on what is very often but a small
estate ; while the trouble and expense
which may attend the discovery and OBJ
tanning of the necessary proof when the
clue to it may have died with the assured
is not less undesirable.
During lifetime, it is usually an easy
matter 10 obtain the evidence needed.
The parochial, congregational. or baptis-
NAL register will often supply the in-
formation. In default of such record. an
entry in a family Bible, authenticated az
contemporary with the birth, may supply
the deficiency; or failing this, some one
sufficiently older than the assured life to
have an accurate remembrance of the cirs