Towns > Edinburgh > 1846-1975 - Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory > 1863-1864

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Efie ^cottisfj probiticnt Institution.
Position & Administration.
The position to which the Society has attained in Great Britain
is thus stated by the Chairman at the Annual Meeting of 1861.
Looking to all the Offices in the Kingdom, we find that of those established as
late as ours not one has come up to us in general business, except it may be one,
and in that case the difference, if any, is not great, while our own Realized Fund
considerably exceeds theirs. If we look, on the other hand, to all the Offices
older than ours, numbering probably about sixty, we have gone ahead of about
one-half of them in the amount of our Accumulated Fund, and of nearly three-
fourths of them in the number of our Members.
Unconditional ot" Indisptctable Policies.
1 HE Leading Part which the Institution has taken in removing
restrictions and grounds of forfeiture from Policies is thus referred to at
the same Meeting by Mr. HOPE of Fentonbarns: —
The Chairman has made allusion to what are styled Unconditional or Indis-
putable Policies. I have had sent me by post printed statements from two offices in
this city, each contending that it was the first to adopt these so-called improvements,
and one of them roundly advances the claim of having been " the means of intro-
ducing into the practice of Life Assurance all those recent improvements by which
a policy may be rendered an unchallengeable and indefeasible security."
Now, it appears to me, our own office led the way in these improvements, so
far as changes which have been made are essentially sound in principle. If you
turn to the Report of this Society, presented to the General Meeting m Febniaiy,
1849, you will find it was then resolved that, with the exception of the declaration
as to age — certain steps to secure accuracy in which are required — " t/iere shall be
no forfeiture unless the averments be fraudulent as zaell as untrue^ At the same
time the forfeiture, in the event of death by the hand of justice, duelling, or even
(when the policy has subsisted six months) by suicide, was abrogated.
Regarding these changes, and their adoption first by this Society, I challenge
dispute. The question is simply one of dates, and I believe no office can produce
resolutions originating such beneficial changes at a date prior to ours. There
is, indeed, one instance in which we do not claim originality. In April 185 1
the Standard Office introduced a system of Select Class Assurances, according to
which Certificates might, on application, be granted to Policies of five years'
standing, giving advantages similar to those conferred by our Resolutions of 1849,
and, in addition, exemption from the forfeiture incurred by going abroad or entering
the army. This arrangement we, with, other Scottish Life Offices, adopted in the
following year, 1852. Although doubts may have been felt whether this extension
was altogether just to the great majority of us who remain at home, yet it may be
regarded as a fair concession to the mercantile principle, from its givhig additional
mai-ketable value to all such Policies, while the actual loss to any must be trifling.
The advantages which the Certificates confer are, however, not available till after a
probation of five years, and meantime the select holders of them, just as all the
other Policy-holders, are under the original conditions as to forfeiture. In this
Institution the forfeitures, on account of innocent error in the statements as to
health, are removed yOvw all, sxidfroin the first.
i N ALL the minor points of practice the rules are equally liberal — as in
facility of license for foreign residence, and of obtaining advances, without
expense, on the value of Policies. Allowances for surrender of Policies
have from the first been made in accordance with a Table of the fair
values, which forms a part of the fundamental regulations.
The Policy-holders are, by the Deed of Constitution, by the Act of Parlia-
ment, and by the terms of the Policies, specially exempt from liability.
LONDON OFFICE:
No. 66.GRACECHURCH STREET —/ MUIR LEITCII, Local Scrrctary.