The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-07-25
LIFE INSURANCE.
Women Coming to the Front with
Claims for lt-EndCw-
ment Policies.

1t is regarded as a sign OF the times
in England and of the progress to
ward the equalization OF the sexes
that the life assurance offices are pay
ing more attention to the insurance
of female lives, and that this branch
Of their business is increasing. The
married women's property act, which
secures them in the enjoyment oil
their W property, and under which
they can dispose OF the sums payable
at death as they please, has done a
good deal to develop the insurance OF
female lives, and the increase in the
number Of women who earn their own
living, and have gone in for an indie
pendent career without regard to mat
rimony, has also helped the move
ment.
The latter class specially favor en-
dowment policies, payable either at
| death or a certain age. Women who
have undertaken the labOrious pro-
| fession of nursing, for instance, look
forward to q time when they will be
set aside, and when a few hundred
pounds may be very acceptable, and
| so they arrange for the payment to
fall due at fifty or ifty-ive years of
age. Actuaries of the old school do
not relish these new tangled notions,
as they regard them, being a clear de-
parture from the principle OF insur-
ance against death; but insurance
| against life in the years of decay is
in actual experience quite as great a
necessity. Endowment policies are a
need of the age, and life offices do well
to supply it. Certainly women who
are theirown breadwinners appreciate
the system.
If the extension OF insurance among
ladies indicates progress toward
equality, the difference in the prem
iuns charged proves the continued ex-
istence of inequality. 1t is not to be
supposed that insurance offices are in
iuenced by sentiment in making a
distinction, but are led to do SO by
the cold calculations of their actuar-
les. They hold that a woman's life is
less certain in the married state than
the mans, and this conclusion is re-
iected in their table of premiums.
The practice of the office varies, but
some charge women 5s. additional per
annum for every e100 assured until
they attain so years of age. No rebate
is made for the unmarried, the assump-
ton being that almost every healthy
girl will enter the welded state. Ii
the number of women who go in for
an independent vocation, however, in-
creases materially, it will only be fair
to modify the rule, as the risks repre-
sented by the extra premium are not
then run by the insured. The fact
that the additional levy OF 10 per
cent. or so is not made after fifty is an
admission that the sexes are under
the same conditions when on equal
terms. Indeed, the female life is
really held to be the best, apart from
the period of special risk.
Taking the annuity table of the
Scottish Widows fund as an illustra-
ton we find that the rate OF annuity
| per cent. is slightly greater on the fe-
male life up to thirty-four, and then
falls below the male life, the assump-
ton being that having passed that
period the woman's life is the longer,
and more annual payments will have
to be made by the office. A few com
parative figures bring this out very
clearly