Volume 3

The insurance cyclopaedia : being a dictionary of the definition of terms used in connexion with the theory and practice of insurance in all its branches, a biographical summary ..., a bibliographical repertory ..., an historical treasury ..., and also containing a detailed account of the rise and progress of insurance in Europe and in America ... / by Cornelius Walford.

Date:
1871-1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The insurance cyclopaedia : being a dictionary of the definition of terms used in connexion with the theory and practice of insurance in all its branches, a biographical summary ..., a bibliographical repertory ..., an historical treasury ..., and also containing a detailed account of the rise and progress of insurance in Europe and in America ... / by Cornelius Walford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    146/672 (page 142)
    In regard to foreign travel and residence, an enliglitened policy has removed many restrictions ; and it is novi^ only professed to charge extra prems. for climates really detrimental to health. [Foreign Residence and Travel.] In regard to risk of occupation, the practice of offices has been by no means uniform. Beerhouse-keepers, butchers, innkeepers, military and naval officers, and all seafaring men, have been made the subject of extra prems., varying, however, with different offices. An early prosp. of the British Empire Mut. (1847) dealt with the subject of extra prems. in regard to diseased and impaired lives as follov\'s : Much misapprehension prevails regarding the health requisite for Life Assu. on the ordinary and advertised terms. The T. being constructed on the assumption that all the persons proposing to assure are both personally and relatively healthy, it must be obvious that the skill of the actuary in constructing the T. of prems. to be paid at given ages, must be supplemented by the valuable and important services of the medical officer, whose duty it is, after a careful examination of the individual proposed for assurance, to determine—i. Whether the person proposed is in robust health, or at least equal to the average of others who are admitted at the T. rates. 2. Whether there is any evidence in the hist, of his family which indicates that there is or has been any constitutional disease, which 7nay at a future time be developed in the person under examination. 3. If the case is one in which disease exists, though in a very modified form, or that the family hist, renders it prob. that he will not escape from the influence of some family taint, it becomes the duty of the medical examiner to state the extent to which the life is, in his estimation, deteriorated, and the increase of prera. that will cover the extra risk. Though it must be obvious to all persons looking at the subject theoretically, that it is equitable to the other members of the Co., that on the admission of diseased or damaged lives, these additional charges should be made, yet, practically, when this principle is applied, the proposers who are thus surcharged (especially those surcharged on the ground of family hist.) frequently consider themselves aggrieved. Conscious that they are at the time in good health, they cannot realize as a fact that their lives are more than ordinarily hazardous, and they therefore are unwilling to pay extra premium for that which ?}iay or viay not occur in their cases. To meet the objections of such proposers, the board of directors have decided, that in surcharged cases, should the proposer object to pay an advanced rate of prem., he shall have the option of being assured at ordinary rates, on one of the following plans :—■ 1. The extra rate which he would have to pay under the old system shall be commuted to a fixed sum, to be deducted from the amount assured should the pol. become a claim within a given number of years. Or, 2. In place of the extra rate, the pol. shall be subject to a graduated charge, diminishing year by year, until the pol. is altogether disencumbered. By either of these modes the proposer will secure to his representatives the full benefit of his pol. without any extra payment, unless he die prematurely. In short, the life will only be treated as an invalid one should experience prove that it was actually defective. This is really an adaptation of Black's plan, already set forth in our art. Diseased and Impaired Lives. Some illustrations of its working are given : A man, aged 30, if surcharged 5 years (thus estimating him in constitution to be 35 years of age), would, upon the method long in use, be required to pay a prem. of £2 15^. a^d. p.c. during the whole of his life, instead of 85. 3^/., the ordinary prem. i. If he adopted the mode proposed (No. i), he would pay only the ordinary rate of prem., 8^. ^d.; but if the pol. become a claim within 34 years, the fixed sum of £n would be deducted from the amount of assu. 2. If he selected the plan proposed (No. 2), he would pay only the ordinary rate of prem.; but there would be a graduated charge upon the pol. The amount deducted, if the claim occurred in the first year, would be £21 55. od.; in the second, £20 us. bd.; and so decreasing 12*. dd. p. year; and the amount would be wholly extinguished in 34 years. The pol. would then continue in force for the full amount, subject only to the ordinary rate of prem. About 1853 the Council of the Inst, of Act. took steps to collect from the then existing life offices the data of their experience regarding extra risks, in view, if possible, of some uniformity of practice. The results will be spoken of under date 1857 in this art. In vol. vii. of Assit. Mag. (1857), is contained a paper by Mr. Charles Jellicoe : On the Data collected by the Council of the Inst, with a view to determine the rates of prem. for the assii. of the lives of persons residing in foreign climates, or engaged in pursuits attended with extra risk. The author says : It will no doubt be in the recollection of many of our readers that some few years ago attempts were made by the Council^ of the Inst, to collect, from the offices willing to contribute the results of their experience, such information connected with the extra risks undertaken by them as might afford the means of determining, if not exactly, at least with some approach to accuracy, the proper rates of prem. to meet them. The Council made application to all existing cos.; but did not succeed, unfortunately, in obtaining returns from more than 52 of them. These 52 cos., however, were at the pains to supply as many as 6154 cases—each of them of a special nature, as regarded unusual hazard to life arising from residence in foreign climates, or from particular pursuits ; but so infinitely varied in their conditions and circum- stances were they, that it became immediately obvious that considerable difficulty would arise as to grouping them into classes which should be sufficiently well defined to yield results of a useful and practical character. If, on the one hand, the conditions of risk were kept within limits sufficiently restricted, the numbers in each class were all but insignificant; and if, on the other hand, attempts were made to remedy this last inconvenience, the groups comprised risks which were altogether heterogeneous. However, after much careful consideration, and many attempts at classification, attended with an amount of labour of which those only who are familiar with such investigations can form an adequate idea, it was finally determined to adopt the double classification of Residence and Employments, each of these being again sub- divided into two or more classes. This work was carried out by, or under the super- intendence of Mr. Edward Cheshire, the then Sec. of the Inst, of Act. We shall here limit ourselves to the results of the classification of employments only— the question of residence will be discussed under Foreign Residence and Travel, under its alphabetical head.