The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-04
WARNING ID
 PROPERTY OWNERS Insurance Commissioners
 Caution People DANGER OF LOSSES
If in Doubt About Company Being Licensed Applicant for Protec- ton Is Requested to Write
 Insurance Department

Montgomery, November 3.-(SpeeiaL
 Alabama property owners are warned against placing insurance in companies not licensed to do business in the state.' said Hervey W. Laird, deputy insurance commissioner, on Frlday' "Quite number of organizations of his class are working the country dis tricts just now and there Is great dan ger that losses will be inflicted. h. surers should insist that their business be placed in companies fully quallfied as 1t is very doubtful if claims can be collected against those which fail 10 abide by the laws of the state
 Here is a case in point, as pointed out by the deputy insurance commls sioner J. B. Bynum, merchant at Aurora, Marshall county, had line of s4000 on merchandise and $500 on furniture, carried by the following companies, he writes: Home Fire as sociation, Cincinnati; Franklin Fire Wilmington, Del; Insurers Mutual Philadelphia; Federal Fire and Equ!t- able Millers', Philadelphia. Not one of them is licensed in the state. It Is, therefore, very likely that any claim against either of them would be hard to collect, for under the law no one has the authority to make adjustments
 An agent at Samson writes that he put a line on negro house for the Cincinnati company which no other company would take. and another agent at Clio exhibited a policy on q mercantile risk in one of the interior towns of the state that no regular and careful company would take. The Clio man also stated that the business methods of the company were what he considered quite slack He stated that they were accepting any sort Of risk, some of which he knew to be entirely without the bounds of even Highly risky insurance. All of which indicates that the people should he very careful and demand that their business be placed in authorized con- panies only.
 ."Business men should also beware" continued Mir. Laird, "of offers made to carry lines at reduced rates. Only few days ago a firm of New York brokers solicited stock lines of one ot the large fertilizer plants, promising to write in a number of companies (some qualified in shis state) al a rate very much below the schedule. For ln- stance, where the rate was 64 cents per S10O it was proposed to cover at 90 cents The companies quoted as willing to be bound being well known the offer attracted attention. Each licensed company, however, assures this department that it will have TO part in such a movement nor has 1t authorized the agency mentioned to use it's name at all.
 "The trouble is that in cases of this kind there is no bona flde offer to lower the cost of protection, but an effort to get safe business away from the licensed companies and place 1t in unauthorized organizations. The names of the reputa ble companies are brought in for effect, but without authority. When called to time on the practice they excuse themselves by saying that the lists of the companies represented in the office was quoted inadvertently. One officer of an authorized company writes: You can, of course. appreciate that 1t Is next to impossible to pre- vent brokers from promising all sorts of things that they cannot produce :"
 The officers of the insurance depart ment requests that where there is any doubt of company being licensed iu the state the applicant for protection write the department and he or she will be given an authorized list and !n- formation that will prevent any one be- ing deceived about the value of the pro- lection offered. Commissioners of the several states are worki ing hard to eliminate the unlawful companies and In many cases men who have had part tn placing business with them have mad to pay losses which the companies did not pay. Some Alabama agents are in danger of something like this now, it Is intimated.