A Brief History Of Life Insurance

Written By: Graham McKenzie on June 15, 2010 No Comment

The word insurance refers to any agreement where a person pays another person or business to indemnify the safety, but to be more precise, pay for the replacement of any such personal property if said possession is lost, destroyed, or damaged in some other way other then the neglect or willful destruction of the property by said owner. There is insurance for just about anything, insurance is generally divided into four areas; vehicle, property, health, and life insurance.

The imbursement sum usually goes to the agreed beneficiaries in the result of the policy holder?s death. The beneficiaries are usually predetermined when the insurance is purchased but can be altered by the policy holder at any time before his/hers death. The acknowledged sum is usually at least one hundred thousand dollars for your average plan. The amount can be increased but the premiums also increase. Another way to increase the sum is to have several life insurance policies for one policy holder.

The earliest known form of a true form of a contractual insurance agreement came as early as 3 or 2 millennia B.C. These simple agreements stated that a merchant, trader or transporter of goods would guarantee the safety of said cargo or shipment. If the goods were lost, the transporter of said goods would pay either the sender or receiver for the loss or both. Other agreements were simply a fee paid by the transporter so that of the goods were lost then the fee would cover said loss of goods. These agreements were usually done by a verbal agreement, but they were later back up by laws etched in stone and papyrus.

Contemporary life insurance began in the late 17th century England as a replacement for traders insurance. In America the first modern life insurance plans began in the late 1760s. The Presbyterian Church in New York and Philadelphia created the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers in 1759. This was fashioned under the Christian doctrine that it is the responsibility of the Church to help the poor, needy, and widowed. Later the Episcopalian priests created a comparable fund in 1769. From 1787 to’37 over a dozen life insurance companies came into being, but less then half survived that century.

Before the American Civil War plantation owners could insure the lives of their slaves against suddenly or unnatural death. They could also insure against crippling ?damage? to a slave. The plantation owner would be paid a sum if said slave died or was rendered unable to work. This repulsive practice was done because slaves were seen as property, not as human beings. The sale of these policies ended fifteen year before the Emancipation Proclamation was passed.

In the 21st century all insurance companies sell some form of life insurance. It is the number one form of insurance purchased globally. Much of it is sold to people after they have children in hopes that in the event of a premature or unexpected death the sum paid to the survivors will be able to use the money to bury their loved ones and support them financially.

Graham McKenzie is the content syndication coordinator a leading South African Life Insurance and Life Cover portal.