470 GILBERT E. ROE 



charter provisions, and the best, quickest and easiest way to 

 do this was by means of a general law. To have amended all 

 the charters would have attracted too much attention, and 

 also probably would have been very expensive . Some attempt 

 was made in 1868 to get a law that would accomplish the 

 desired result, but it was not until 1872 that the law was ob- 

 tained which struck down the provision in every charter re- 

 quiring short period distribution of the surplus, Chapter 100 

 of the laws of 1872, section 83 of the present insurance laws 

 provides : 



"Distribution of Surplus to Policy Holders.— Any domes- 

 tic life insurance corporation may ascertain at any given time, 

 and from time to time, the proportion of surplus accruing to 

 each policy from the date of the last to the date of the next 

 succeeding premium payment, and may distribute the propor- 

 tion found to be equitable either in cash, in reduction of premi- 

 um or in reversionary insurance, payable with the policy, and 

 upon the same conditions as therein expressed at the next 

 succeeding date of such payment, notwithstanding any thing 

 in the charter of such corporation." 



This law, while drawn so as to be obscure, permits the sur- 

 plus to be ascertained not at short periods, but at any time. 

 It permits it to be distributed not at short periods, but upon 

 such conditions as may be provided in the policy, any thing in 

 the charter to the contrary notwithstanding. Such is its 

 interpretation by the courts (Greeff vs. Equitable Life, 160 

 N. Y., 19). Strangely enough, a law effecting this same pur- 

 pose was passed at about the same time by the legislatures of 

 nearly all the states in which leading life insurance companies 

 were incorporated. The proposition was now easy. Insert 

 in the policy form, in fine print, among one of its innumerable 

 conditions, a proviso, that distribution of the surplus shall be 

 postponed for twenty years, or any other period, and for- 

 feited in case any premium is not paid, and the scheme of 

 building up a surplus is complete. Give to the agents more 

 commission for writing this kind of policy, as all the companies 

 admit they do, and the accumulation of surplus becomes a cer- 

 tainty. 



The history of the Equitable is the history of the others 



