The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-03
2.,263,aOs

dividends 46I, 45i
Increase in surplus, a,'45,ot
2.,263,205
S3S, 063, 502
Here again the only item needing ex-
PLANTATION is the saving of $1,1S9,7S9 in
the fifteen years on lapsed and sur
rendered policies. These amounted to
$70,937,316; the reserve on these was
$11, 507, O47, of which amount $10,317, lbs,
or about 80 per cent, was returned to
policy holders in paid-up insurance,
cash and otherwise Were ours Ton
tine business the whole $11, 507, 047, and
all the surplus accumulated by it, would
have gone into the pool for the lucky
ones to divide-or so much as was not
eaten up by the expenses Of Racing"
Similar exhibits by the many Tontine
or investment life insurance companies
would be of remarkable interest.
LIFE INSURANCE SPECULATIONs
A TURN IN THE TIDE.
Over twenty years ago certain New
York companies found themselves los
ing business very rapidly on account of
very high expenses and very small div
idends The enormous number of re-
sulting lapses threatened their extinc-
ton; but these were seized upon as the
happy basis of plan to convert life
insurance into scheme for making
money out of the many who should die
or lapse their policies. for the benefit of
the few who should live and keep pay
ing premiums through a certain period
of years. The reserves on lapsed poll
l<Hs@ TIL, 70 h,txy n
insurance for the fanlily-and the un-
paid dividends of both those who died
and lapsed, were to be put into a Ton
tine pool to be divided among those
who were lucky enough to live and keep
paying. The gamble was as to who the
| lucky ones should be.
| They figured out enormous probable
profits from the enormous losses indi-
| yiduaI policy holders were to suffer;
and the Estimates" Of these We're pow
| erfully attractive. Rich men took the
policies in certain confidence that they
| could beat the game; poorer men took
| them in imitation of richer men, and
| trusting luck to escape consequences
the FORGETTING of their dividends and re-
serves for the rich men to divide. Plain
life insurance has no glitter; but here
was new, up-to-d date thing that spar
killed.. The POOP was drawn upon for
commissions to agents that were sim
ply staggering, and for rebates to new
insurers which became a principal
means of competitions The scheme
| swept the field like a prairie tire. The
business of these companies took on a
startling growth; and new business, as
a measure of the popularity Of the rev
scheme, was insisted upon as the rea
criterion Of success. yFhe reliability al
the Estimates could not be tested I'M
/ til the day Of settlement came at the END
of the Tontine or Postponed dividend
/ period; and that vas many years of.
4 There We're 'ou. two ways If meeting
the scheme en- which, and .he t,mmis-
| sion and renatess h which, business
was beir S captured III SUI. enormous
/ quantities. one was II fall in with tlle
scheme and offer the same speculation
with the same sort of estimates anG
pay the same prices for business and
Justify ones self on the ground that il
was selling people what they wanted
The other way was to point out to those
whose families needed protection ant
all the protection they could get, thai
this was pure gamble with that pro
lection; that if the scheme succeeded
| for the lucky few it must be at the cos
of such confiscation Of the reserves ant
dividends of the many as was a crime
against those thereby stripped Of thu
protection they needed; that 1.-The people
wanted it, only because they wer,
made to believe that it was something
else than what it was; that the expense
at which the scheme was being worked
precluded the possibility Of realizing
the estimated profits; and that, insur
ance being simply the distribution o
losses, and premiums being simply con
tributions to losses, it was impossible
to make it profitable investment tt
any one except by robbing some on
else for his benefit.
The Connecticut Mutual chose tn,
latter course 1t has steadily and con
tinually exposed the true character o
the schemes exploited in the name o
life insurance; it has pleaded for pur
life insurance to those whose familie
could not afford to have their protection
gambled with; it has tried to teach tn
TRUTH to show people what their tru
want is; to make the cost of protection
as small as possible; it has been con
tent to see many of it's agents hire,
away, to be kept from getting new one
by demoralizing commissions and to d
new business by the tens of million
where its speculative rivals-and the
have become a numerous company
have done it by the hundreds of mil
l