The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-18
FFTY.ThIRD ANNUAL REPORT
~
OF THE
CONNECTICUT
Mutual Life Insurance
Company.
TO the Members:

Y menus upon our business in 1898, we ask
your careful reading of the Financial
statement which is printed in another
column, the items of which are, there
Tore, not repeated here.
1t is very gratifying to be able to say
that, Notwithstanding the many unto
ward conditions of the past year, it's
main results, so far as the Connecticut
Mutual is concerned, have been salts
FACTORY. The mortality has been favor
aple; the lapses and surrenders were re-
iatively few; the amount of business in
force and the premium income have in
creased; the assets have increased by
$59S,345.46, and the surplus by $3.50, 225.-
70; the company's own unique standard
pf economy has been maintained; it has
made the cost of it's insurance less than
nhat IN any other company through its
larger average dividends, which it has
not had to reduce for the year 1899; it's
securities have largely increased in
market value; it has maintained it's
conservatism at every point and is pre-
pared with growing strength to repeat
IN the future it's unrivalled success of
the past fifty-three years.
Assets, Liabilities and Surplus.
The, admitted assets January 1, 1885,
We're $64 1872, 1927; the total liabilities
were $56, 665, 845.20, leaving a surplus of
$7,516,54207. Of these liabilities, $685.,
S61,814 is the reserve from former pre-
iniums required to meet the increasing
mortality Of the future from the in
Creasing age of our members their pre-
iniums remaining uniform except as de-
creased by yearly dividends. The legal
standard of solvency requires this re-
serve to be computed on the assump-
ton that the companies will earn per
cent. annual interest as long as any of
the polio es in the account may continue;
d possible period of sixty or seventy
years.
In 1882, the Connecticut Mutual, alone
among the companies, anticipating the
great decline which has taken place in
the rate of interest and is still in pro-
gress, based its premiums and reserves
Tor all business thereafter on the as
sumption of earning only per cent, as
the highest safe calculation for so long
future. This makes our reserve 81 S22.-
O59 larger than it is by the legal stand
ard of solvency, and our surplus cores
pondingly smaller. By that standard
our reserve liability is $53,539,75 and
our surplus $685. COL. Thus have we
long been steadily preparing for that
which is now startlingly evident to ALL
Insurance in Force.
The early months of the year gave
promise of considerable increase in bus
mess, which was checked by the out
break and progress Of the war; but so
all al o1xy 1op md
Eurrenders that we nevertheless made
gain in the amount of business in
force. The persistence Of our business is
q most gratifying feature of our expe
rience. 1t adds steadiness to all our OPP
erations, gives us the greater benefit of
care in the selection of risks, and mate
rally assists to keep down the expense
account.
We had in force January 1, 1899, &c.
1862 policies for S,07SS $50; an ample
business for securing the most satisfac-
tory results to policy-holders, and pre-
senting less difficult problems in man
agement than pertain to a business of
several times greater magnitude.
A Favora BILE Mortality
We had a very favorable mortality
CURED being so much less than those
expected by the Mortality Table and
provided for by our premiums and re-
serves as to make a saving of $541 26S.
while our death rate varies somewhat
from year to year. such has been the
care exercised in the acceptance of risks
that the variations have so far all been
well within the amounts called for by
= MI r. Ia. offO mn a,. oil
dngs. In no year has such a saving
failed to be effected.
The Interest Rate and It's Incidents.
The past four or five years have been
notable for the great volume of loans
paid off by borrowers, for great di-
minution in the demand for loans by
new borrowers, the consequent accumu-
1ation of funds awaiting investment,
and a decline in the rate of interest |
pending a revival of demand. The hard
times of the early nineties, with the
panic of 1893 and the depression follow |
tng, made great many solvent borrow
ers anxious to get out from under the |
burden of debt and interest paying, and
forced a great deal of foreclosure in the |
case of insolvent or embarrassed borrow
ers The conditions have not yet S far !
changed for the better as to re-estab- |
Jish the demand and the rates for mon
ey 1t has, therefore, during the past |
wear been more difficult than usual to |
keep money satisfactorily en- |
ployed. The money received in pay |
ment of loans has not been absorbed by |
loans of like character, and has had to
seek investment in bonds of high class
for security, but at a lower rate of in
terest.
The conditions which have so affected |
the rate of interest have not only caused
the liquidation of many loans by fore
closure, but have prevented the real es-
tate market from recovering it's normal
activity so as to cause the reabsorption
Of the foreclosed properties by individu-
al holders. The real estate market is the
last to respond to either favorable or
unfavorable influences When the mar
ket RECEIVERS it's tone there is good rea-
son to believe that our properties taken
as a whole, will prove worth all they
have. cost Our past experience under
like conditions fully justifies that belief.
Meanwhile, we are in a condition to
await a return to conditions which
will enable US to sell at fair prices.