The medical adviser in life assurance / by Edward Henry Sieveking.

  • Sieveking, Edward H. (Edward Henry), 1816-1904.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical adviser in life assurance / by Edward Henry Sieveking. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    money, provided the former has duly fulfilled his part of the agreement, on the occurrence of certain contingencies. Now all insurance tables are cal¬ culated so as to allow a margin of profit to the companies, provided that the mortality does not exceed a certain ratio. An insurance company can¬ not conduct a safe business unless it is able to restrict its mortality within the rate provided, and to defray its expenses out of the margin allowed for that purpose, in the absence of exceptional sources of profit. It is therefore in the interest of all policyholders, both for their security and profit, that the company should use every reasonable pre¬ caution to see that the basis of the contract on the part of the insuree is unimpeachable, just as it is the interest of the latter to ascertain, that the com¬ pany with which he proposes to insure, will at any time be able to fulfil its share of the contract, and pay the claim when it falls due. The misfortunes which have overtaken some com¬ panies, especially of late years, have suggested the desirability of converting them all into Government property, a process which has not, as yet, met with much support; but the greater control exercised under the Act of 1870 has been hailed with satis¬ faction, although it has entailed much labour upon them, by all well-established and respectable com¬ panies, because it is believed that it will prevent the formation of bubble undertakings, and give the public as great a guarantee of good behaviour on behalf of those existing, or to exist in future, as can fairly be expected.