New Britain herald., 1921-12-09
REAL ESTATE IS FINE COLLATERAL
Insurance Convention Hears
 Discussion Of Investments

New York, Dec. 9. Real estate railroad securities as the leading in- vestment held by life insurance com panies, according to original statis- tics submitted to the 9th annual convention of the Association of Life Insurance presidents here today.
 Speaking on "A Decade of Life h. surance Investments" Asa S. Wing, president of the Prevalent Life and Trust company of Philadelphia, stat ed that the real estate mortgage loans Of the life companies have doubled in ten years, increasing from $l.22S, S,O0O,o00 at the end of 1911 to $2,46S, S,O00,O00 on October 31 of this year.
 Investments in railroad securities were $1,3S3,0 ,000, ,000 at the end of 1911 as against $1,793, ,000,000 at the end of 1921. Real estate mortgage loans form more than 32 per cent of the total assets of the companies now, while railroad securities, which form ed more than 35 per cent. 10 years ago, have dropped to 26 per cent. Policy loans of $S2O, ,000 rank third and United States government bonds of $772,00O,0O are q close fourth, being 11.30 per cent of the assets. SOther investments include state, county and municipal bonds and real estate. The total assets of the companies are in excess of $7,300,- 900, ,000.
 Referring to the huge increase in real estate mortgage loans, President Wing said much of it had gone to the farmers, but that there is now a dis cernable trend toward the city again to meet housing requirements. On this point he said:
 Tn order that this convention might have the latest data as to the trend of life insurance investments in mortgage loans, 47 companies holding more than 93 per cent of the assets of American companies have just made reports showing the total amount of their farm and city mort gages as of October 31, 1921.
 'I find that $261, 100000 has been added in the ten months from De- cember 31, 1920, to October 31, 1921, making a total of $2,46S,600,0 1000 real estate mortgage loans on October 31, of this year. Of this total, $1,247,- S00,0 is on farm property and $1,- 21,S00,000 on city property, There fore, for the first time in many years If not for the first time in the his tory of the country the total amount of farm loans held by life insurance companies now exceeds the loans on city property, the proportion being 50.53 per cent. loans on farms as against 49.47 per cent. on city proper ty.
 "Of the increase of s261 ,900,000 in mortgage loans during the first ten months of this year, S161, ,300,00O is in farm mortgages and $100, 0,600,000 in city mortgages. The increase in farm mortgages is greater in amount than the increase in the city mortgages during these ten months, as was the case in 1920, but there is still the same tendency that l previously pointed out, namely, to increase the proportion of loans on city property as compared with farms.
 This trend of investments toward the city has been strongly manifested since 1919 and can be shown most clearly by the proportion of new money going into each class of mort gages during the last few years. Please note, during 1918 and 1919, that 91.03 per cent of all the net in crease in loans was on farm property and S.97 per cent. on city property. In 1920, the proportion of money in vested in farm loans dropped to 63.7S per cent, while thae city loans in creased to 3G22 per cent.
 During the first ten months of 1921. the same tendency has continu- ed and the proportion of. farm loans has dropped to 61.59 per cent, while that on city property has increased to 3S.41 per cent With justifiable pride, speaking at an insurance gath ering, I can point to the investment