546 



INSURANCE. 



greatest possible benefits to tbe assured. It is ,-i 

 Mutual Assurance Sotii'ty, in which the whole 

 profits belong to, and are periodically divisible 

 amongst, the assured. In this respect, it differs 

 essentially from a proprietary company. In the 

 latter, the profits are in some cases wholly, and in 

 others partly, divided amongst the proprietors, who, 

 as partners, have nothing in common with those 

 who effect assurance with the company. When 

 the livos are carefully selected, and the revenues 

 prudently invested, experience has demonstrated 

 that those profits are greatly beyond what is un- 

 derstood by such as are not intimately conversant 

 with the subject. The numerous Proprietary Life 

 Companies which have arisen, the exertions made 

 by them to procure business, tbe dividends they 

 have been enabled to pay to the proprietors, and 

 the value of their stock, demonstrate the extent of 

 their profits. Any healthy person, therefore, who 

 finds it expedient to have his life assured, and who 

 resorts to a Proprietary Company, just gives away 

 his share of profits, and he does so without any 

 corresponding advantage whatsoever. For though 

 Proprietary Companies hold it out as an induce- 

 ment to join them, that they secure to the assured 

 the sum specified in the policy, whether profit be 

 made or not, this is merely a nominal advantage, 

 the fact being, that in every established life office, 

 large profits have arisen. Such has been the re- 

 sult, partly because human life is ascertained to be 

 of much greater duration than is assumed in those 

 calculations, on which all well-conducted life in- 

 stitutions have cautiously and very properly pro- 

 ceeded, and partly because money can, by transac- 

 tions in redeemable annuity, and otherwise, be im- 

 proved to greater advantage, than the rate of 

 interest assumed in such calculations. No Pro- 

 prietary Company, therefore, can possibly afford so 

 great advantages as Mutual Assurance Societies 

 do ; for such societies, by dividing the whole pro- 

 fits amongst the policy holders, assure the greatest 

 possible sum at the lowest possible rate. In other 

 words, they assure at prime cost. Accordingly, if 

 it be said of any Mutual Assurance Society, that 

 its rates are too high, it is an obvious answer, that, 

 granting they are so, it does not form a good rea- 

 son for joining a Proprietary Company in preference 

 to such a society, because all moneys beyond what 

 are absolutely indispensable for securing payment 

 of the sums assured, are returned or compensated 

 to the contributors, either by corresponding addi- 

 tions to the sums specified in the policies, or by 

 making a corresponding diminution of the future 

 annual contributions or premiums. The great 

 practical effect, in short, of the premiums being 

 somewhat beyond the risk, is to create an addi- 

 tional guarantee for the stability of the institu- 

 tion. 



The London Equitable, on the principle of 

 which the Scottish Equitable was instituted, is 

 well known throughout the empire, and the pro- 

 fits which it has divided, are familiar to every one 

 acquainted with life assurance. In some cases, the 

 bonuses or divisions of profit have extended to 

 more than four times the sum assured, an im- 

 mense advantage, the whole or the greater portion 

 of which would have been lost to its members, had 

 they resorted to Proprietary Companies. 



The premiums or contributions required by the 

 Scottish Equitable are somewhat lower than those 

 of the London Equitable. It is not, however, on the 

 lowness of the premiums required, that the Scot- 



tish Equitable Life Assurance Society puts forth 

 and rusts its claim to support. As has already been 

 said, it is of small, or rather it is of no importance 

 to the members of a Mutual Assurance Society, 

 that the premiums or contributions are somewhat 

 more than adequate to the payment of the sums 

 assured, seeing that to the members alone, all the 

 surplus is appropriated. The claim of the society 

 to a decided preference, therefore, is founded on 

 the irrefragable fact, that from the very nature of 

 the institution as it stands, no company, on a dif- 

 ferent principle, can warrantably offer to the As- 

 sured so great advantages as it does. 



The recent alteration on the law of the society, 

 introduces triennial in place of septennial inves- 

 tigations, and a more equitable allocation of the 

 profits. 



The annexed tables exhibit the progress of the 

 Society from its commencement, and the premi- 

 ums on which policies are granted: 



View of the Progress and Situation of the Society since iti 

 Institution. 



Premiums for Assurances nn Single Livet for the Whnle 

 Period of Life, 



These premiums are payable yearly ; or, in the 

 option of the assured, they may be made payable 

 half-yearly, with a slight increase of the rate. 



We conclude this article with an extract from 

 an able paper on Mutual Assurance Societies, 

 which appeared in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal 

 of 23d March, 1839. 



" Although there are about sixty Life Assur- 

 ance Companies and Societies in the kingdom, all 

 of which are constantly making strenuous efforts 

 to attract public attention to the peculiar advan- 

 tages which they have to offer, it is a fact not less 

 true than surprising, that the number of individuals 

 who have availed themselves of life-assurance in 

 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

 is not much above eighty thousand. Allowing 

 twenty-five millions to be the population of the 

 empire, and five persons to be the number of each 

 family, it would thus appear that not more than 

 one head of a family out of sixty-two has adopted 

 this means of providing for the helpless beings 

 whom he may leave behind him. If there were 

 Other means in abundance of providing for widows 



