The assurance of diseased and doubtful lives on a new principle, more advantageous and equitable to policy-holders than the system hitherto adopted / by Morrice A. Black ; with observations on the characteristics of assurable and non-assurable lives, by A.P. Stewart.

  • Black, Morrice A.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The assurance of diseased and doubtful lives on a new principle, more advantageous and equitable to policy-holders than the system hitherto adopted / by Morrice A. Black ; with observations on the characteristics of assurable and non-assurable lives, by A.P. Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/42 (page 17)
    with them, and submit the following New Scheme. The ordinary tabular rate, at the proposer's actual age, will he adhered to, and, imtead of the usual Annual Extra Premium, payable during the icholeof life, a single Premium^ shall be made a temporary charge on the Policies of. those Applicants for. Assurance tvho are considered by the Medical Advisers below the average standai'd of health. The single Premium guaranteed to the Company shall only he deducted from the sum assured, in the event of the Policy becoming a claim within a limited number of years, agreed on between the Office and the assured. We now proceed to explain the principle of the New Scheme. What ,, are its characteristic and peculiar features. First.—The ordinary lahidar rate at the Proposer's actual age is adhered to. It is in this fact that the ultimate benefit to the Assured, under the ■ New Scheme, consists. The arguments in’the last chapter proved, we- think, conclusively, that the recommendation of a Medical AdviserJ.as to , the correct number of years which should be added to the agje of a life' considered Diseased or Doubtful, was little better than a guess, and in many cases, as the result proves, wide of the mark. Instead, therefore, • of pre-judging, judgment is suspended. And that which is a matter of doubt and uncertainty is left an' open question/ to be decided by the^ natural verdict. Second.—Ihere is no AnnualfExtra Prernium to be paid during the whole of life as under the Old System. Why should an Annual Extra Premium be paid in anticipation of a risk which is uncertain and unde-: fined,.when the Company haye the power of subsequently retaining such an amount of Extra Premium as may be found to be Just and Equitable ? If the risk which an Office incurs “by Assuring a Diseased or Doubtful Life, is paid for by an Annual Extra Premium, the Office is protected, but the Assured is not permitted to share in any benefit that may accrue from the fact of an error in judgment having been committed by the Medical Advisers, in estimating the Extra Eisk which was supposed to hie incurred. Annual Extra Premiums are therefore abolished under the New System, and the Assured pays from the time his proposal is accepted af the same rate as the First-class Life does. Third.—A Single Premium is Guaranteed to the Company. ' We have now to explain the nature of the compensation which is to be accepted by the Company in lieu of the Annual Extra Premiums hitherto charged. The single premium which is guaranteed to the Dompany: represents the present value of the contingent number of yea-rs recom- mended to be added by the Medical Adviser. If this single-premium was-’ paid down in cash to the Company, it would represent the value of an Annual Extra Premium under the Old System. That is, an Annual Extra,Premium would be worth as much to the Company as the Single Premium paid down. But under the New Scheme the Single Premium o >• .•