lAA President Charles B. Shuman addresses one of the insurance company conferences 



during the annual convention In St. Louis. Shuman also serves as president of Country 



Life Insurance Company and Country Mutual Casualty Company. 



Qounth^ QompanmA 



SET NEW RECORDS 



Joh ScikA in m? 



THE conliiJencc witli wlin.li Illinois 

 farmers view the progress ol the 

 Country Companies seems to be the 

 yeast that raises the dough. During 

 the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, they 

 bought more insurance trom the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association insur- 

 ance companies than during any previous 

 year in their history. According to A. £. 

 Ridiardson, director of lAA Insurance 

 Service, the record insurance sales are an 

 indication of general farm prosperity, 

 rising farm costs, and an awakened need 

 to the value of insurance on farms. 



From reports delivered at the annual 

 meeting conferences in St. Louis, 19-t7 

 will go on the books of the Country Life 

 Insurance Company, the Country Mutual 

 Casualty Company, and the Country 

 Mutual Fire Company as the banner 

 year since tlieir organization. 



Country Life Insurance Company had 

 $313,221,225 of life insurance in force 

 at the end of tlie fiscal year. New busi- 

 ness totaled S-46,352,277, the highest in 

 the company's 19 years of existence. In 

 his message Manager A. E. Richardson 

 attributed the tremendous increase to the 

 fact that "Country Life Insurance Com- 

 pany is recognized more and more every 

 year as being one of the outstanding low 

 cost life insurance companies in the coun- 

 try today, and farmers have turned to life 

 insurance more tiian ever as a means of 

 helping them solve some of the tax prob- 

 lems which they did not have a few 

 years ago." In the increase is also mir- 

 rored the great strides made by the 



agency force in an all-out effort to serv- 

 ice all I'arm Bureau members in their 

 respective territories. 



'To all policyholders," said Richard- 

 son, I would say 

 this: Country Life 

 Insurance Company 

 today is in just as 

 good shape finan- 

 cially as it was when 

 I took over last No- 

 vember. In fact it is 

 ^^^^ a lot better, and the 



^^^HT' i . credit belongs to the 



[■ JtM F";I '"^"^ people who 

 HF Or'' If:,:.'':. ha\e worked hard to 



make It what it is 



today." 



The Country Mutual Casualty Com- 

 pany also entered a star year on their 

 records with 189,311 policies in force, 

 and 39 per cent ot all the farmer general 

 and employees liability business put on 

 the books in the last year. The complete 

 picture is a company that is .sound, pro- 

 gressive, growing — 6 2/3 million dol- 

 lars in assets, and about two million dol- 

 lars in surplus. 



It offers to its policyholders protection 

 at 40 per cent less than the nearest com- 

 petitor in the casualty field. Although 

 the low rate offered by the Casualty Com- 

 pany is determined by the cost of claims, 

 frequency, uniicrwriting expense, it was 

 on the fourth factor, selection of risks, 

 that Frank Wilcox, manager, placed em- 

 phasis for the low figures 



Why are the rates as low as they arc 

 Will they remain there.'' The farmei 

 himself can answer the first question and 

 thank himself that he is the reason for 

 the low rates because he is a preferred 

 risk, he is a select risk 



"Will they remain there.-' That can bt 

 answered in two ways. Are we going 

 to mix the herd and have a hybrid, or 

 are we going to develop an average ol 

 risk and apply it to the farmer in the 

 place of the national averages now em- 

 ployed, which are not typical of rural 

 people, and keep this service for every 

 deserving farmer in the I'arm Bureau in 

 Illinois at cost." 



Reflecting the tremendous increase in 

 farm property values. Country Mutual 

 Fire Company had 5530,036,603 of fire, 

 wind, and extended coverage in force at 

 the end of their fiscal year. This was 

 also their biggest year and was 13 per 

 cent above that of 1946. During the 

 year the company also wrote $148,000.- 

 000 of hail insurance on crops. 



The interest on the part of members, 

 stimulated by the tremendous increase in 

 the value of property and in services, 

 resulted in the number of applications 

 topping that of last year by one-third, 

 according to L. E. Lingenfelter, president. 

 The increase was evident not only in 

 number, but the activities of the various 

 cooperatives in the state resulted in a 

 greater diversity of kinds of property in- 

 sured. As reported by Lingenfelter, 

 the company has insured the elevator and 

 other properties of the affiliates of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association, as well 

 as the farm and residence properties of 

 its members. 



J. H. Kelker, manager, expressed 

 his gratification at the surplus increase of 

 51,137,000 and the assets increase of 

 51,850,000 produced by the Fire Com- 

 pany this year. However, he advised, 

 merely piling up the surplus is not the 

 main purpose of the company. Rather, it 

 IS the rendering of greater service to 

 more and more people. That the main 

 purpose received its deserved precedence 

 during 1947 was mirrored in the 55,000 

 call cards distributed to members for the 

 Annual Meeting. This was an increase 

 of 10,000 over 1946. 



In order to render better service to 

 holders of hail insurance policies, he ex- 

 plained, all contracts this year were writ- 

 ten and issued in the local general agent's 

 office. By this means the policies were 

 placed in the hands of the insured within 

 a very few days rather than having the 

 applications sent to the Home Office and 

 policies issued there. During 1947 ap- 

 proximately 32,000 policies were handled 

 by the local offices, compared to the^ 

 28,000 policies issued during 1946 



L A. A. RECORD 



