The Irish standard., 1915-05-08
CAN INSURANCE EXPERIENCE BE
APPLIED TO LENGTHEN LIFE?
BY Arthur Hunter, Actuary New York
Life Insurance Company.

BY Arthur Hunter, Aetuary New York
Life Insurance Company.
Can insurance experience be ap-
piled to lengthen life?" and the an
swer is simple: 1t can. l have no
doubt that the knowledge which the
life insurance companies have acquired
from their investigations regarding
the mortality among their policyhold-
ers may be applied by individuals to.
wards lengthening their own lives; but
the difficulty arises of getting such in
formation before the public in form
which can be readily understood. The
investigations undertaken by the com.
panies were primarily intended to as
sist them in determining which types
of persons could safely be accepted
for insurance at the regular rates of
premium, which types should be charg-
ed an extra premium, and which
should be declined. No haphazard
methods have been used, but the most
approved and scientific known ia act
uaries and medical directors; their
knowledge of mortality is based upon
the actual experience of companies with
all sorts and conditions of men and
women, and naturally appears in the
form of statistics.
Forty-three of the leading life insur-
ance companies in the United States
and. Canada agreed in 1909 to prepare
their collective experience on many
different classes of insured. They de-
cided to put the investigation into the
hands of the Actuarial Society of Am
erica and the Association of Life In
surance Medical Directors. The COM
panies supplied their records on about
100000, lives covering a period of
! twenty-five years. 1t is the largest
and most comprehensive investigation
ever undertaken by insurance compan-
les anywhere. The object of the in.
vestigation was to determine from
past experience the types of lives
among which the companies had high
er mortality than the average. The re-
suits of the investigation have appear
ed in five volumes 1t has taken the
Central Bureau about three and half
years of continuous labor to produce
the results. A card was supplied for
each of the policies issued from the
years of 1885 to 1909 among certain
types, the history of the person be-
ing given on such card.
The insured were divided into over
200 classes, covering all kinds of &C.
equations and defects. The scope of
this letter does not permit more than
mere reference to few.
Habits as to Alcoholic Beverages
Nothing has been more conclusively
proved than that steady free use of
alcoholic beverages, or occasional ex-
cesses, are detrimental to the individu-
al. In may judgment, it has also been
proved beyond peradventure of doubt
that total abstinence from alcohol is
Of value to humanity; it is certain
that abstainers live longer than per-
sons who use alcoholic beverages.
The low mortality among abstainers
may not be due solely to abstinence
| from alcohol, but to abstinence from
tobacco, and to a careful regard for
ones physical well-being.
| Among the men who admitted they
had taken alcohol occasionally to ex-
cess in the past, but whose habits were
considered satisfactory when they
were insured, there were 2S9 deaths,
while there would have been only
100 deaths had its group been made up
| OF insured lives in general The extra
mortality was, therefore, over so per
cent, which was equivalent to a re-
duction over four years in the average
life of these men. If this meant that
four years would be cut off of the av-
erage normal lifetime of each man,
there are many who would consider
that 1.-The game was worth the candle;
but it means that in each year num-
Der of men will die at an earlier age
than they should. For example, at age
| IS, the expectation of life is 35 years;
! in the first year after that age, instead
of, say, 9 persons dying, there would
probably be IL deaths; that is, three
men would each lose 80 years of life;
in tho navf no hl1y
would each lost 81 years of life, etc.
AS matter of fact, many immoderate
drinkers would live longer than 80
years but not nearly so many as would