The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-05-18 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE. SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION  HEAD-OFFICE, 14, ST. ANDREW-SQUARE, EDINBURGH.  THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Contributors to this Society was held in the waterloorooms, Edinbargh, on Wednesday, the lstb February : Mr. WILLIANI FRASER, Writer to the Signet, the Senior Director, in the Chair. The CHAIRMAN, after thanking the Meeting for placing him in the chair, adverted in terms of congratulation to the details of the Society's progress. Alluding to the steady increase of their business, he said—l need not say that the Directors have taken no undue means to procure it. They have adhered to those rules of administration which have always received your cordial approval, and have steadily resisted every inducement to purchase favour by conforming tre practices which they consider objectionable in principle/ At the same time, they have continued to give the greate attention to the selection of lives ; and their care in this expect is apparent from the it rate of mortality experienced, hick still continues far below the rate indicated by the tablis, which give the highest estimate of life. In illustration of r care, I may refer to the Irish business, which is genera - regarded as one of a rather hazardous description. But ith us—confining ourselves to a few and selected localities it has been fully as good as in the best districts of Scotland England : one agency, established ten years since, which S sent in about £9,000 of Premiums, has not yet produced a single claim upon the Society. There is one matter which it remains for me to bring under your notice, and to which your sanction is to be asked. It has been always a subject of anxious consideration with the direc tors to withdraw from the Policies all restrictions and condi lions of forfeiture which are not essential to safety ; and you are aware that a great deal was done by this Society, a few years since, to remove such restrictions. The grounds of forfeiture in case of death by duelling, by the bands of justice, or by suicide, if beyond six months from the date of the policy, were then removed ; and it was further established that no mere innocent error, or omission to state what, though impor tant, might not at the time have been within the knowledge of the contracting party, should be a ground of future challenge against the Policy. The exception of a mis-statement of the age was then retained, in order to check carelessness in regard to a matter on which the amount of premium depended, and which, with ordinary care, might he sufficiently determined ; but the Directors were, at the same time, empowered to correct the consequences of any accidental or unintentional error in this respect. A great advance was thus made in giving to the Policies of the Institution a character of unquestionable security; but more enlarged experience has satisfied the Directors that they may, with perfect safety, and without a departure from any great principle, go further in the same direction ; and they now feel themselves quite prepared cordially to recommend the adoption of resolutions to which, in concert with other Scottish Life Assurance Companies, they signified their assent, and by which, at a comparatively early period after assurance, every restriction will, to the great body of the Policyholders, be removed, and the value of their Policies, as marketable securities, be placed beyond doubt. You are aware that, by the existing regulations, a Member being beyond the limits of Europe, or entering into Naval or Military service, or dying at sea, except within certain spcciEed limits, forfeits his Policy, unless ne has previously obtained a license from the Directors. It is part of the resolutions to be submitted for your approval, that the Directors be empowered, in the case of Members whose circumstances or prospects in life preclude the possibility of any of these conditions of the Policy being violated, to grant a certificate to Members applying for it, that. if these are not infringed within five years, they shall then prescribe, and shall not thereafter be a ground of forfeiture. With such a certificate, and the age be sufficiently proved and admitted, which has never been found an insurmountable difficulty, the Policy will become a document of debt absolutely unchallengeable upon any ground whatever save one. viz., that of fraud or intentional falsehood, in retaining which, as a ground of challenge which cannot be abandoned, the Directors feel confident that they will carry with them the feelings and judgment of the contributors. To those Members whose circumstances-will exclude them from the benefit of the proposed resolutions, it must be satis-factory to know that the fundamental laws of the Institution (as fixed at your meeting three years ago) secure their Policies against challtiike on ground' of innocent error; and this is to ue kept in view as an advantage which your Society still offers Over every other Scottish Institution. Copies of the law as it at present stands, with the alterations proposed, have been placed in your hands. After the reading of the Report, these will also he read ; and it will then rest upon you to decide whether they shall be adopted. Mr. C. W. ANDERSON laid on the table the Report from the Directors. He referred to the steady and progressive increase of the Society, which is exhibited in the Tabular view now subjoined.