page_title: International Life Assurance Society
section_title: Equitable Fire Insurance Company
hierarchical_section_title: International Life Assurance Society / Equitable Fire Insurance Company
caption_attribution_description: English: Excerpt of an advertisement published in the 1851 edition of the Farmer's Almanac and Calendar (eds. Cuthbert and Shaw)
context_page_description: The International Life Assurance Society was a 19th-century British insurance company. Its operations in the United States, particularly in the state of Massachusetts, caused it to play a major role in the development of insurance regulation in that country.
  The Society was founded in 1837 under its original name, the National Loan Fund Life Assurance Society. The "Loan Fund" part of the name reflected the Society's practice of allowing insureds to borrow back a portion of their premiums, an unusual feature in its day but one that is now commonly practiced in the form of "policy loans". From the very start, the Society established a presence in the major cities of Britain and, within ten years, had done the same in Canada and the United States. By the mid 1850s, the Society had become the sixth largest insurance company in the United States and, by far, the largest British insurer operating there.
  Signs of financial difficulties arose in the early 1850s. By then, the Society had changed its operating practices to reduce the amount of funds that could be borrowed by the policyholders.
context_section_description: Although the Equitable Fire Insurance Company was not a subsidiary of the National Loan, the two companies were related.  Both were stock companies owned by a large number of investors, and ownership might have been shared by the same investors.  But regardless of whether or not there were common owners, there were five individuals who were directors of both companies and one of them was T. Lamie Murray (who also was chairman of both boards of directors).  The two companies appeared together in the same advertisements and initially shared the same address in London.  Management of Equitable Fire acknowledged that their company had been "brought out under the powerful auspices" of the National Loan.
  Equitable Fire was established in June 1849, but did not commence operations until mid 1850.  It was registered under the Joint Stock Companies Act of 1844 and, as such, was required to file financial statements with Britain's Board of Trade.  Those reports were published by the House of Commons.  They show that, although Equitable Fire had been advertising its possession of £500,000 capital, the actual amount of paid-in capital was far lower.  At the end of 1851, actual paid-in capital amounted to only £15,000.  Furthermore, about one-third of that initial capital had been loaned to Murray.  In the financial report for that period, the company's auditors noted the existence of the loan and commented that they "would not be supposed to express any opinion in favour of [it]".  They added that the matter "may require further investigation by the directors".  However, by the time that report was finalized in August 1852, Murray and four other directors had already been removed from their positions (and this was at about the same time that Murray resigned as chairman and director of the National Loan).  When announcing the departure, the ongoing management said only that there had been a "complete reorganization" of the board of directors.
  Under its new management, Equitable Fire ceased sharing an office with the National Loan and was no longer mentioned in advertisements placed by the National Loan.  But because its overseas agents had all been associated with the National Loan, its expansion into Canada and the United States followed the same geographic routes, with major offices in New York, Halifax and Montreal.  In the case of Montreal, this was unfortunate because it found the company growing its business there just in time to be affected by that city's Great Fire of 1852.  Although the company stated that it was not unduly affected by the Great Fire, it nonetheless called for additional funds from its shareholders that same year.  Equitable Fire's operations did stabilize by the mid 1850s, but only to then see a substantial decline in new business.  It did not recover from that decline.
  Equitable Fire filed for liquidation in London's Court of Chancery in March 1860.  Throughout its ten years of existence, the Equitable's owners had paid in about £75,000 in capital.  At the time of that filing, the company's assets were only about one-third of that amount.  The early loan to Murray had never been repaid.
caption: Excerpt of an advertisement published in the 1851 edition of the Farmer's Almanac and Calendar
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