ENDOWMENT ASSURANCE is the subject of an article elsewhere, and certain risks undertaken by life assurance companies hardly need special reference in such a work as this. Examples of the latter are " Names and Arms " policies, which indemnify against loss caused by a person failing to use a certain name and arms, and " Sanity " policies, which provide against loss on a lunatic recover ing sanity. The most generally important form is that known as Whole-Life Assurance, the very name of which is sufficiently indicative of its nature. This form is the oldest one generally adopted by the companies and the assured, and it is yet between this and endowment assurance that an intending assured will hesitate. It is the simplest form of assurance ; the one that simply and solely assures against death. Nothing is more certain than death ; nothing more uncertain than the hour of death. This fact is the mainspring of all forms of life assurance, and its force is most apparent in a simple assurance against death. A whole-life policy may be effected either with the right to share in the profits of the company or without that right, the contract in the former instance being usually known as a " with profit" assurance, and in the latter as "without profit." This profit is frequently referred to as a bonus, and is the subject of the article on DISTRIBUTION OF INSURANCE SURPLUS. But what a business man wants is the largest amount of assurance for the lowest possible premium. Iiy adopting the without-profit system he may readily obtain this ; but by investing in the with-profit system in order to grasp an elusive so-called " profit," lie will most certainly effect his assurance at a comparatively expensive and unprofitable rate. It may do for the wealthy man, who desires only a fhirly remunerative investment without personal trouble, but it is useless to the poor man. The " profit," or bonus, is merely created by the company taking so much annually out of one of the pockets of its with-profit assured and replacing it in another, with any interest (less expenses) it may have earned at the end of a certain period.
The following tables, extracted from those of the Legal and General Society, will give some idea of the cost of whole-life assurance without prcyfil. Each of the tables shows the rate of premium, or periodical cost of assuring £100. In Table I. the premium is an equal annual payment during the whole of the life of the assure,l; in Table II. the payment of the premium is limited to some specified number of times, after which no further premium is payable ; and in Table III. is shown a scheme of ascending premiums, whereunder it is claimed that an assured can obtain the largest amount of assurance for the smallest present outlay.
Comparing these figures with Table I. it will be seen that those in the hate] exhibit a material increase. It is this increase which provides for the working expenses of the company, certain contingencies, and perhaps some profit. No company can operate without such an increase and be solvent ; yet no company need make tho increase too great, and so render its assurances comparatively expensive to its policy holders. The increase slightly varies amongst the different companies, and provided the financivl stability of the particular com pany is undeniable and its general conditions of assurance are sufficiently liberal, a whole life without-profit assurance is most advantageously effected with the company whose increase is the least. And in this connection it is worth pointing out that though the majority of companies continue to charge an extra premium for women, it is yet possible for a woman to make a selection from about twenty companies of the highest standing which are prepared to accept an assurance upon her life at the ordinary rates. The female policy holders in England are now only about five per cent. of the whole number assured—a disproportion the result of the old-fashioned and still very general practice of overcharging women. This sex surcharge, where it is made, is generally either an extra premium of 5s. per X100 per annum, or a single extra premium of £1 per £100 assured.