Page 9 - Life Assurance

/4 Group life assurance :

Group life assurance scheme for the
assurance of large numbers of employees
operated by deductions from company payrolls.
These policies guaranteed payment at the end of
a fixed term or earlier if the inured died within
that period, and the sum assured was as a rule
lower than for whole-life assurances. Although
endowments attracted little business before the
1870s, they represented about nineteen percent of
all policies issued in the late 1880s, rising to forty-
seven percent by 1900.

2/3/5 Industrial life assurance and friendly
societies :

Ordinary life assurance , which required the
payment of relatively large premiums, did not
suit the savings needs of the majority of weekly
wage-earners.

Working men needed a form of assurance
which could be linked to a regular savings. To
some extent, these needs were met by the
friendly societies. Many of the societies suffered
from financial instability and mismanagement,
and they could not provide systematic control of
subscriptions and benefits. The insurance
industry was well equipped to enter the wage-

Life21/life/life08

26