Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1916-02-10
BUBBLE BURSTED
ASSESSMENT INSURANCE COM
PANY GIVES UP
Clay Life Of Illinois Has Been Merg'
ed In Old Line Life Company
Policyholders' Experience

Inc IOllOWluS dTJlCl0 llom ehS
Kansas City Star of Sunday, Janu-
airy 80, 1916, tells the same old
story Of the absolute fallacy of the
system of assessment insurance:
Kearney, Mo-, Jan. 29.-This
town in Clay county is in ferment
of excitement over the transfer Of
the Clay Life Association to Deca-
tur, Ill.
The Clay Life Association was
organized here twenty-four years
ago on mutual plan, and its rates
were very low. 1t had 1921 policy
holders in western Missouri, the
majority of them in Clay and Ray
counties, and in st. Joseph and
Springfield. Many of these had been
paying premiums for twenty-four
years. Now the company has been
merged with an old line life insur-
ance company in Decatur, ILL.,, and
those of the old company who wish
to pay old-line insurance rates may
get new policies in the Illinois com
pany for their old policies in the
Clay Life Association. Otherwise
they must drop out and lose all
they ever paid in.
This works a hardship upon old
men and women policy holders in
the company because the rate they
will have to pay for new policies
will be so high as 10 be almost pro-
hibitive. OF the policy holders in the
Clay Life Associa tion 1900 are up
wards of fifty years old, and many
are sixty and seventy. This is the
way it affects those policy holders:
Alexander Henderson of this town
was charter member of the old
company and for tweny-four years
has been paying premiums on
policy of $1,000. His premium was
$54.60 a year. He is so years old.
Now he must either lose his policy
or pay $229.67 in the Illinois COM
pang.
Pay or Lose
r. F. Milbourn is IS years old and
has been paying premiums twenty
four years, his rate now being $26.40
"a year. To get policy in the ILL
nois company he must pay $104.54I
"a year or lose every dollar he has
paid in.
Mrs. q. Pollock has been taking
in washing for years to keep up
the premiums on the life insurance
of her husband, who is an invalid.
Now she must lose all she paid in,
and her insurance pJlicy too, be-
cause Mr. Pollock is am old man and
the insurance rate is too high for
her to pay. Mrs. john Henderson
has been strRining every effort for
years to pay the $17.4O yearly prem
ium on her husbands insurance.
Now her rate has bean jumped up
to more than 500 a year and she
cannot pay 1T. Mrs. Jane Grisson
has been taking in washing to meet
the premiums on her husbands pol
icy, and she, too, will lose all.
Average Age Is Al
And so it gnes. The average age
of the 1921 policy holders is AZ
years, fifty-four of them are up
wards of 70 years old, and eighteen
hundred are upwards of so. The
great hardship worked upon these
policy holders, especially upon those
who are old, is that they get moth
ng at all for all they have paid in
through the past years. Had they
been insured in an ordinary life
company, and wished to drop out
now, their policies would haxe cash
surrender values or be worth so
much in paid up insurance. For in
itance, the man who is now SO years
If age who went in twenty-four
lears ago, would be paying only
1885 a year now for his $1,000
,Clicy. But not one of the 1921 pol :
cy holders will get ANY credit for :
he years he has been paying.
Each must now pay the same
ate in the Illinois company that be :
you'd if he were taking out new in =
urance at his present age. In other :
lords, the policy holders lose all
hey have put in and get nothing In
xchange except that the Illinois
ompany will apply the assets Of h
he old company. which are about fl
so, 900. as a special premium fund b,
Dr. partial payment Of premiums ci
I policy holders Of the old company al
! the new company. st
This. it is estimated. will enable ri
le old policy holders to take out o
olicies in the new company and al
sep up monthly payments at the h'
d low rate for five months and ie