Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-01-29
Tie LIMIT IN LIFE INSURANCE.
In All the. Companies of the World .
Man Might Get Perhaps $4,000, 900.


Man Might Get Perhaps $4,000, 900.
Several papers have published
paragraph to the effect that the Prince
of Wales is insured for about e10,-
600, 200, a portion of the insurance
being for the benefit of creditors, and
a much larger portion in favor of per-
sons neither related to him nor hav.
ing any interest whatever in his liv-
ing. Professor A. f. Harvey, the in
surance actuary, who is authority on
all such matters, considers the state
ments ridiculous, and particularly the
one that Prince Albert is insured for
the benefit of people who have no in
surable interest in him.
Cup to about 125 years ago the
practice Of taking out insurance on
the lives of Kings, Queens and others
in authority, where there was no
possible insurance interest, obtained
to great extent" said the Professor
when his attention was called to the
paragraph. "The practice became so
general, scandalous and vicious that
in 1774 Parliament enacted statute
ia Geo. 3, C. 4S), prohibiting abso-
lutely all insurance in which there
was no interest to the beneficiary in
the life of the principal in the con-
tract, and prohibiting the payment OF
money under policy written to Sc.
cure debt beyond the actual sum
due. This law against wager or gam
bling policies was followed up in
France and Germany and in most of
the States of this country, and has
since been rigidly enforced every
where"
The amount of life insurance car
ried by the Prince of Wales has never
been made public, and is probably
known to only few people. 1t is
evident, however, 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 exPostmaster-Ge General John
Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, and his
insurance amounts to only 50, 025, 900.
The word "only" applies here be-
cause of the comparison with S4S,-
600, 900, or, to be more accurate, $48,-
775,000, according to the present
market value here of $40, 100000 At
meeting of the National Life Under
writer's 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 ad-
dressed the Association his life in
surance amounted to 81, 1925, 900, and
all but $50, 900 had been taken after
he was fifty years of age.
According to an Eastern insurance
journal "the amount of life insurance
which can be secured upon single
life among the United States COM
panies foots up $2,600,000 The
paper gives tabulated list of forty
two old-line companies and what pur-
ports to be the limit of each. The
figures 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 COM
pany reinsures portion of the risk
The figures in the table represent the
limits without such reinsurance. OF
course, there could be no 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 are
omitted from the table, as also assess
ment companies, fraternal organiza-
tions and several industrial companies
that write very little, if any, ordinary
life insurance. Accident companies
that pay death claims, but do not
write ordinary life insurance, are like
wise omitted. Including all these,
the total life insurance that person
could get in the United States would
probably still fall below $4,000, 900.
There are about $50 life insurance
companies in the world, not counting
American companies. Very few of
them insure for as much as $50, 900
and the average is not half that sum,
but supposing it were $4,000 the
total would be only 81, 900, 900, which,
added to the American total, would
still make only about one-tfth the sum
the Prince of Wales is reported to be
insured for.