Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-13

OF it is on men under age forty four: another
quarter is on men from forty-four to fifty
three; another quarter on men from fifty
three to sixty-one, and one quarter OF 1t OF
men over slxty-one. And the mortality or
our older ages is farther below the expecta
tlon than thar on the younger ones. We arr
saving more money on them for dlvidend
than on the younger ages.
If the safety orsprosperlty of life In
surance depended in the least degree or
keeping the business young, it ought to bt
leglslated out of existence as wholly lnse
| cure.
NEW BUSINESS.
Our members are well aware that we are
less anxious 10 gain new members rapidly,
or in great numbers than to give our present
large membership the best possible results on
! their business. We have, therefore, not IN
creased our proportion of expenditure for
| new business-which would have been at
the expense of present members-but we
| have, notwithstanding, made fair gain
over the business of the preceding year and
made considerable addition to the amount
| Of business in force, which now amounts to
S155, ,043, ,055. None of this was ont for col
! lection in the hands of agents when our
books were closed II was all paid for
EXPENSE ACCOUNT.
We have rracticed the wonted and tradi-
| tional economy of the company in every dl-
rection; and vet have allowed no true in
| terest to suffer from false economy. The
| ratio of expense OF management TO income
! for the wear was 99S per cent; a ratio ma
teri ally less thsn that of any other COM
pasy.
1t is quite the fashion for our rivals to eN-
hioit expense ratios based on the amount at
I rIc ha Of hn
written, or some set of figures other than the
| income. But expenses do not come out of
the amount at risk, nor out of the new busi-
ness, nor out of anything else in the world
than the income as long as that is large
enough for expenses and other things; fail
ing that, they come out of the assets.
It is to be regretted that the most push
ing companies no longer publish, except in
the reports to insurance departments. such
statement Of their affairs as show the items
of income and expenditure, and as would
enable the public to judge of the cost at
which they are transacting business.
COMMISSIONS.
In the light of the revelations now being
made to the public of practices existing in
certain great companies it seems proper to
inform our members that the commissions
paid by this company for business are
strictly maintained at the conservative
standard of former wears; that our contracts
with agents do not give them a future con-
troll over these commissions; when an
agency ceases, the remuneration for the
agent ceases, and such commissions as are
then fixed upon the existing business of
that agency go to the new agent to assist
him in his work: we do not add to the cost
OF paying men VINO are at work for us by
paving also men who have worked for us,
after they get through; we do not submit to
pav enormous commissions on new business
in order to let an agent who has got through
working continue receiving commissions
on old business; we have no contracts
for future commissions against which
advances" or ''Ioans'' or 'commuted COM
missions" can be made and charged up to
the agent, to-make "rebates" out of, or pay
absurd commissions and brokerages out of,
on business which will presently be
twisted into some other liberal company
by the same competitive measures, leaving
old members to pay for the ambitious ex-
plot. The resources of this company are
not mortgaged to ANYBODY
1t is true that in these days of fierce en-
terprise and competition it has not been
easy for us to secure agents against the tre-
menious temptations held out by the
''Racers." But We have been and are slow
success in life insurance means and can only
mean giving pure and absolute protection
to families at its lowest possible cost; and
that competitive methods worthy of lot
terry scheme are poor credentials for COM
pany asking men to commit to it the most
sacred of secular trusts
So the agents we have and get are true
men, and the business they get STAYS, and
pays.
SUCCESS
Insurance is indemnity against loss. 1t is
ana can be made nothing else To give per-
feet indemnity at the lowest true cost is per
feet success; not brilliant success nor one
gratifying TO an ambitious manager" per
haps but it is the only success there is in
the matter, and anything else that is sub
stituted for it, however brilliantly it NAV
succeed for the time being and until il has
worked itself out, will ultimately come to
naught.
This fact is slowly coming to the light in
the case of the great
ToNTINE. COMPANIES.
In order to ''boom" their business thew
ceased to teach men the sacred duty of nro- |
tecting their families by life insurance, and
began instead TO show them estimates of the |
profits that might be made out of the for |
feiture of protection. Their experience
had shown that, in their companies, |
out of thousand men of mid. |
die age taking policies, only about one
third would pay premiums for. say, |
twenty years; about one hundred of them |
would die, but nearly six hundred of them
would lapse-give up paying. So they pro-
posed that no one should have any divi- |
dends for, say twenty years, but paw his |
premiums in FULL that if any one died he |
should get the face of his policy, leaving be-
hind all the dividends his policy had earned;
and if any man Iapsed-couldn't pay-he
should forfeit all he had paid, both the diEi-
dends earned and the reserves on his policy;
at the end of the twenty years those who
had been lucky enough to live and paw
through should divide up what the unlucky
ones had left
This was called "Tontine Insurance."
this, or modification of it, as to the amount
is now usually called Investment
Insurance.
1t took nightly. The estimated profits
we're very large, and people did not realize,
and perhaps some of them did not care, that
5he profit they might make was the loss of
other men and OF their families, and that
n order TO get chance at it they had to
'isk their own money and the protection of
heir own families. The reckoning dav was
ar off, and agents were tempted by tre
nendous commissions and by contracts that
allowed of advances and ''commuta-
ions, by mortgaging the companys mar
,ins of premiums for many years ahead. |
Business increased in the most brilliant
manner; such increase became the one cri-
erion of success. II was hard for plain
conservatives to make head against the