Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-07
LIFE INSURANCE LIMITS.
Man In Every Existing Company
Mint Get gIO,OOO,OOO.

Several papers have published para
graph 10 the effect that the Prince or
Wales is insured for about f1O,OOO,OOO,
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. #. 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 insur.
able interest in him.
up to about 12J years ago the prac-
tice of taking out insurance on the lives
of kings, queens and others in authority,
where there was no possible insurabe in.
terest, obtained to a great extent" said
the professor when his attention was
called to the paragraph. THE practice
BECAME so general scandalous and vi.
cous that in TIA parliament enacted a
statute IA Geo. 3, C. 49, 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-
/ hibting the payment of money under n
policy written to secure debt beyond
the actual sum due. This law against
wager or gambling policies was followed
up in France and Germany and in most
of the states of this country and has since
been rgidly enforced everywhere"
The amount of life insurance carried
by the Prince of Wales has never been
made public and Is probably known to
only n few people. 1t is evident, how
ever, that the total Is not one-tenth of
the sum named in the paragraph referred
to. The most heavily insured man in the
United States Is ex-Postmaster General
John Wanamakcr of Philadelphia, and
his insurance amounts to only $2,025,00O.
The word only" applies here because Of
the comparison with S4S,600000 or, to be
more accurate, $4S, 775 900, according to
the present market value here OF &c.
100000, At meeting Of the National
Underwriters association in Philadelphia
four years ago Mr.. WanHmaker stated
that one of the first things he did after
becoming of age was to insure his life.
When Mr. Wanamaker addressed the as
ISOLATION his life insurance amounted to
81 ,525, 900, and all but 100000 had been
taken after he was 80 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
p-,pOo,NpO' nv paper SlN'S u tdbhIht'
ed list of AZ old line companies and what
purports to he 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
in every such case the company reinsures
portion of the risk. The figures in the
table represent the limits without such
reinsurance. or course there could be nc
reinsurance on n person that took the
limit in every company. Legal reserve
and stipulated premium companies that
are not usually classed as old liners arr
omitted from the table, as also assess
ment companies fraternal organization:
and several industrial companies thai
write very little il any ordinary life in
surance Accident companies that pa!
death claims, but do not write ordinary
life insurance, are likewise omitted. In
Guiding all these, the total life insurance
that a person could get in the Unite(
States would probably still fall below
$3,OOO,O00 There are about 800 life in
surance companies in the world, no
counting American companies. Very few
OF them insure for as much as 10000
and the average is not half that sum, bu
supposing it were 100000 the total woul,
be only $1,000 900, which. added TO tn
American total, would still make onl.
about one-ffth the sum the Prince o
Wales is reported to be insured for.-St
! Louis Globe Democrat.