The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-11-14
LIFE INSURANCE LIMITS.
A Man In Every EIisting C0mpanV
Might Get $IO,OOO,OOO.

| Several papers have published paras
graph to the effect that the Prince OF
Wales is insured for about Flo, 900, q
portion Of the insurance being for the
benefit of creditors and much larger
| portion in favor of persons neither relat-
ed to him nor having any interest what.
| ever in his living. Professor A. F. Har.
| vey, the insurance actuary, who is au.
thority on all such matters considers the
| statements ridiculous, and particularly
the one that Prince Albert is insured for
| the benefit of people who have no insure
| able interest in him.
up to about 125 years ago the prac.
tice Of taking out insurance on the lives
Of kings, queens and others in authority,
where there was no possible insurable ip-
terest, obtained to great extent" said, I,
the professor when his attention was
called to the paragraph. "The practice
became so general scnndaIous and VIZ
cious that in 17T4 parliament enacted
statute IA Geo. 3, c. 4s) prohibiting alb.
Solutely all insurance in which there was
no interest to the beneficiary in the life
Of the principal in the contract and pro-
hibiting the payment Of money under a.
policy written to secure debt beyond
thc dsluui uuNs 4AS III" u&uluBtt4
wager or gambling policies was followed
up in France and Germany and in most
of the states of this country and has sinca
been rigidly enforced everywhere"
The amount of life insurance carried i
by the Prince of Wales has never been
made public and is probably known to-
only few people. 1t is evident, how.
ever, that the total is not one-tenth OF
no ;,, -
TO. The most heavily insured man In thu Il
United States is eX-Postmaster General
John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, and
his insurance amounts to only S2.025, 900. 4
The word ''only" applies here because of;ss
the comparison with $4S,600. 600 or, to be !.
more accurate $4S775,000, according to \
the present market value here of f1O,- II
100000. At a meeting of the National
Underwriters association in Philadelphia
four years ago Mr.. Wanamaker stated
that one of the first things he did after (,
becoming of age was to insure his life.
When Mr.. Wanamaker addressed the as-s
sociatiOn his life insurance amounted to II
$152S, 900, and all but $4,000 had been Z
taken after he was so years Of age.
According to an eastern insurance jour
nal, ''the amount of life insurance which
can be secured upon a single life among
the United States companies foots up
$4,000, ,000". The paper gives tabulat-
ed list of 42 old line companies and what
purports TO be the limit of each. The fig
ures are correct In the main, but there
are some bad errors in the list.
Some of the companies insure for more
than The amounts credited to them, but n
in every such case the company reinsuresi
Il portion of the risk. The figures in the
table represent the limits without suchskl X
reinsurance. OF course there could be nos
limit in every company. Legal reserve
and stipulated premium companies that
are not usually classcd as old liners ara IA
omitted from the table, as also assess
ment companies. fraternal organizations
and several industrial companies that
write very little if any ordinary life ins
surance Accident companies that pay
death claims, but do not write ordinary *
life insurance, are likewise omitted In-
cluding all these, the total life insurance
that n person could get in the United
States would probably still fall below
So, 100000. There are about $50 life i'm
counting American companies. Very few
Of them insure for as much as $25, ,000s
and the average is not half that sum, bun
it were $50 600 the total would
be only $7,000000, which, added to TIN
American total, would still make only
about one.ffth the sum the Prince 0tsty
Wales Ia reported to be insured Tor ~
Louis Globe Democrat. s'salsl I'D