The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-08-09
Wanted.

A new plan of life insurance, one
which will be equally fair to all, the
old and the young, the poor and the
rich; economical and perfectly safe for
all time financially.
All the plans of life insurance hith-
erto tried have been found wanting.
either in fairness, or in economy, or in
security, or in all these essentials. Let
us have a plan which will afford US
perfect fairness to all, strict economy
and perfect security.
But is such a plan possible? Yes, it
is both possible and practicable; and it
lis a good time to discuss it just now,
when such a conspicuous representa-
tive of the assessment plan of insur-
anca as the Royal Arcanum is in the
throes Of dissolution, and when such a
conspicuous representative of the old
line plan as the Equitable is in such
desperate straits in consequence of
reckless extravaganza and shams full
corruption.
The proposed plan is based upon a
fixed premium, the same for all, re-
CARELESS of age, and upon a constantly
decreasing indemnity after some adopt
ed standard age, like twenty-five or
thirty, has been survived by the insur-
ed. Up to and including the standard
age the indemnity should be the full
amount written in the policy, but IL the
insured survives the standard age by
one, two or more years the indemnity
due to his beneficiary shall be as the
DeXpectation of life at the date of his
death is to the expectation of life is at
age thirty, if age thirty be adopted as
the STANDARD age.
Take an illustration. A man thirty
years of age or under insures his life
on this plan for the sum of $1,000, and
dies when he is thirty-five years of age.
What is the exact amount of indemnity
to which his benet1ciaries are justly en-
titled?
According to the American Table of
Mortality, the expectation of life at age
thirty is 35.S, while the expectation of
life at age thirty-five is only 31.9 years.
The formula, then, for ascertaining the
amount of indemnity due under the
supposed contract is as follows:
AS S5.S is to S19 so is $1,000 to the in
demnity due. Answer, $903.65.
If member survives until he is for
ty years of age, and then dies the for
mula will be as follows: AS 1873 is to
2S.2 so is $1,000 to the indemnity due.
Answer, $79S.S3. The amount of the in
demnity due when death occurs at any
other age would be ascertatned in the
same way by simply making the ex-
pectation of life at the date of death
the second member in the formula.
There is something unpleasant and un-
attractive in the thought of leaving an
diminishing indemnity to ones
b nef1c1ary; nevertheless, it is all we
can safely and actually do. There Is
nothing attractive in the fact that we
are growing old. But We are, and we
must put up with it.
We soon lose the bloom of youth, and
our physical powers soon begin to de-
teriorate, and the meaning of it all is
that We are leaving life behind us and
are approaching our appointed end.
The plan of life insurance here outlined
simply recognizes these indisputable
tS~NNEo Siib oCChS ~ CUlllOTIH 10 them,
That is all. Is it not wise to do so?
The assessment plans Of insurance
nave always ignored nature and have
to make the indemnity for
the loss of the old mans life equal to
the indemnity for the loss of the young
mans life. But death and the arith-
metfc have always been too much for
them, and they always will, for the
assumption underlying the scheme is
absolutely false.
All the old line insurance companies
have recognized the fact that the bene-
hciaries of the insured man who dies
when he is old are not entitled to as
much indemnity as they would be had
he died in his youth. They will paw
them the face of the policy, it is true.
but they have been wise enough tn
him to lay up with them. in
their safe and under their full control.
a good sinking fund.-" they call it
legal reserve" which more than makes
up the difference between what the
oenehciaries receive and what is Justly
their due Hence, while the full face
Of the policy is paid, the real insurance
indemnity" paid is very small, almost
nil it may he. Hence, so far as the
insured is concerned, and so far as the
oeneficiaries are concerned, the social
I'd legal reserve" in life insurance is
IN absurd piece of delusion, for thew
persist in imagining that it is real in
real indemnity, when. as a
matter of fact, there is not one single
mill of real insurance in a billion of life
insurance legal reserve.
The insured would therefore provide
lust as much real indemnity for his
oeneflciaries under the new plan of life
insurance here outlined as he would in
he very best of the old line companies,
and he would dc so at small fraction
II the amount which the old line COM
pany would charge him. l think abour
Is per annum in advance for each 81 900 |
II insurance at the standard age of
.hlrty would be ample to meet all the
'equlremF nts in the case. Thus dis
oensing with the artificial necessity for
training the country of money to Gre |
Ute "a legal reserve" which serves only
% deiude the insured, to corrupt the |