Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-01-11
Samuel Newhouse and Alfred
w. McCune Head the List
With 100000.
AVERAGE COMES NEAR $1,000.
To BE Correct. When u Man Dies Who
Is Insured His Widows
Share IL 1924.

TO the average citizen the figures
that go to make up annual reports on
life insurance companies in this coun-
try are little short of astounding. He
has perhaps come to look upon the
system as having produced concerns
more or less opulent and powerful but
when he comes to peruse the pages
. of year book" he learns that among
the giants In the financial world there
are few, If any. more colossal than
those known as old line life insurance
companies.
OF the very big associations there are
perhaps a dozen in the United states.
with many more of considerable inn
portance, gradually decreasing In as
sets. until in all there are 1913 COM
panies doing business. The reports for
1907 are not yet available. but at the
beginning Of that year the insurance
in force in all of the companies amount
ed to s1l, 1881 94077 (more than eleven
and a quarter billions OF dollars).
sl5s,O2s,sSo TO HEIRS,
Amounts paid to policyholders during
the year 1906 totalled $24S,294, 492. or
this vast sum S153, OPS $50 was paid in
death claims. sac. 26S,1 ITO in dividends,
and the remainder in various WAYS.
None of these figures include what is
known as Industrial insurance busi-
ness, except the last two sums.
In this country there are 5,792,9o6
policyholders. This statement does
not mean that that number of persons
carry life insurance, but 1t represents
the total OF policies. In many instances
one person carries a policy in various
companies. and the policies, not the
persons, are counted. The average
amount of each policy Is $l,944. Taking
again into consideration the statement
that some persons carry more than
one policy. the average for each indi-
vidual would be higher than the aver
age of policies.
wANAMAKER HEADS LIST.
Credit for carrying the largest
amount of insurance of any man in this
country belongs to John Wanamaker
of Philadelphia, the sum that would
go TO his heirs from that source, at
his deoease, being 81, 100000. In Utah
two men divide honors in the direction
indicated. Messrs. Samuel Newhouse
and Alfred w. McCune each carries
5000, 900. Others with heavy policies
are S. II. Auerbach. ]. A Cunningham.
Thomas Kearns, Frank Knox and
others.
lNSljRANtE In Ol8i1.
In the last annual report of insur-
ance in Utah, issued from the office of
the secretary of state, the risks In
force In this state are placed at sS7,-
e46S42l4 OF that amount IS 6S4. 6l9 was
written In 1906, and during that year
$3.50, 33 was paid to local policy hold
erS.
since the investigation of life in
surance methods, instituted by the
state of New York, the conduct OF
which paved the way for placing Char
lesles A Hughes in the gubernatorial
chair and made of him a presidential
possibility. many changes in the laws
regulating insurance have been enact
ed. Most of these revisions are ad-
mitted, even by Insurance officials, to
have been of a beneficial character.
Some of them, however, are deemed by
the class mentioned to have been con-
ceived and enacted while the public
| mind was more or less agitated, ana
| in some instances actual hardships are
| declared TO have been imposed upon
| insurance companies. These alleged
| harmful features, In the opinion of per-
| sons making the claims, Will In due
| time be rectified. The New York
| law governing life insurance is known
| as the Armstrong law, and is said to
| involve the ideas of Nj. Hughes.
THE ARMSTRONG LAW
The Armstrong law is directly re-
| sponsible for the introduction into sew
| eral at least of the old line companies
| of what is known as the new standard
| policy. The following will give an
| understanding of it's provisions:
| In case OF the death of man 40
| wears OF age, for instance, who was
| carrying insurance to the amount Of
| say. $4,000, an annuity equal 10 the
| amount paid upon the policy each year
| or approximately 500. would be turned
over to the beneficiary during the re-
mainder OF his or her life time. Should
the beneficiary die before the 20 years
expired the annuity would go 10 the
estate. until the 20 years had elapsed
and would then cease. But so Ions
| as the beneficiary survives. the annuity
continues, though the person be
hundred years old or more.
The average life insurance policy Is
as stated, In u sum approximatint
&. 900 or. to be exact. 1894, such
sum placed at the disposal of widow
for instance, perhaps with family o
children. Immediately after the takinl
away of the support of the household
could not prove other than windfall
How II might be invested whethe