Insurance policy

“ The obligation of an insurer in a policy of life insurance is made up of a number of promises, of which one is to pay to the beneficiary the amount of the insurance-the 'proceeds'-and another is to pay the 'surrender value' to the insured upon his demand. ”

“ If the insured dies before premium payments cease, under the terms of the policy, the beneficiary receives the full amount of the policy. If the insured lives beyond the stated period, he is entitled to receive the amount written on the face of the policy or he may be allowed to receive a paid-up policy for some specified sum. A policy of reinsurance is simply a contract made by one insurance company with another, whereby the first reinsures with the second some individual risk which it has itself accepted and insured. ”

“ And if any person or persons shall insure his or their buildings or goods, and shall cause the same to be described in the policy otherwise than as they really are, so as the same be charged as a lower premium than would otherwise be demanded, such insurance shall be of no force. ”

“ The object for which insurance exists is to guard against certain accidents to which we are all liable, such as the destruction of property by fire, or the loss of future earnings by disablement or death. An agreement is entered into by which one party, known as the insurer or assurer, agrees to pay to another, called the insured or assured, a certain sum in the event of the particular event insured against happening.
The document which states the conditions of this agreement is called the policy, and the payment made on account of the insurance is known as the premium. ”

“ In taking out an insurance policy one pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue payments. If, however, woman's premium is her husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, "until death doth part." ”

“ On the other hand, the average man is convinced that there is, and so certainly is the man who takes out a policy of accident insurance. It is his reading of the policy that is to be accepted as our guide, with the help of the established rule that ambiguities and uncertainties are to be resolved against the company. ”

“ When the sum insured is large, a higher premium per cent. is demanded; and money, papers, pictures, gunpowder, and jewels, are excluded.—If an article be falsely described, in order that it may be insured at a lower premium, the policy is justly void. An insurance made on the same subject at different offices, must be specified by indorsement on the policy; and, in case of loss, the offices pay a sum in proportion ”

“ An insurance upon life is defined as "a contract by which the underwriter, for a certain sum proportioned to the age, health, profession, and other circumstances of the person whose life is the object of insurance, engages that that person shall not die within the time limited in the policy ”

“ The assured assumes the risk of paying premiums during the life on which the insurance is taken, even though their aggregate amount should exceed the insurance money. He also takes the risk of the forfeiture of his policy if the premiums are not paid on the day they fall due. ”

“ And the average life policy becomes a claim thirty years after the first payment is made. Again, the company receives much larger amounts than the actual insurance cost. This peculiarity results from the fact, described in the first article, that men will not pay for their insurance as they go. They will not pay its actual cost this year, its actual cost next, and so on—on the natural premium plan, that is—but insist on paying the same amount each year—or a level premium. ”

“ In these circumstances you will no doubt be persuaded of the desirability of sending me the premium forthwith, in order to effect an insurance which has your Lessors' approval. It possible that the office you name would give you credit for so much of is the premium as is proportionate to the risk unexpired. ”

“ Washington Insurance Co., 4 Cow. (N. Y.) 645, the rule was applied in a case where the agent was authorized to make insurances, 'provided the office shall recognize the rate of premium, and be otherwise satisfied with the risk.' It was held that the company was bound to issue a policy where the insurance was a proper one and the premium was paid or tendered, although before the premium was received at the home office the property was consumed by fire. ”

“ These circumstances gave the nephew such an interest in the life of the insured as to prevent the policy from being a wager one. The insurance effected was from the 9th of March, 1867, and the policy recited the payment of the first annual premium on that day, and stipulated for the payment of the subsequent premiums on the same day of that month each year. The payment of the insurance money, after notice and proof of the death of the insured, was made dependent upon the punctual payment, each year, of the premium. ”

“ For all that appears the insured may have been advised and may have assumed that the coverage clause of the policy gave protection in such a case as is here involved and may not have desired to continue to pay the additional premium for the other losses described. We are not called upon to speculate as to the state of mind of the insured's officers and one asserted ambiguity is not to be cured by another. If the general coverage clause permits recovery, we see nothing to defeat it in what was done in connection with the rider. ”

“ II. Every person designing to insure, shall before surveying the goods, pay 10s. earnest money, to go towards the charge of insuring, if agreed to, and the policy be taken up within three months after, otherwise the said 10s. is sunk to the society: but if the directors do not agree to such insurance, the earnest money to be returned. Also old policies directed to be renewed, and not taken away within three months are also to be cancelled, and the charge of the policies and stamps of such renewals deducted out of the deposit-money of such insurers. ”

“ An employee may elect insurance under the policy by completing any form of pay roll deduction order approved by the employer. Each employee electing the insurance before becoming eligible will be insured automatically on the day he becomes eligible. On the effective date of the policy and on each annual renewal date an average annual premium rate will be established. The employer shall give the insurer notice of terminations of insurance and additions of employees becoming eligible. ”

“ It seems to us equally clear that no distinction can be drawn between the case just supposed and that of insurance; for the policy of insurance in cases of total loss is analogous to a contract of sale, by which the ship, or what remains of her, or the hope of her recovery, become. on the happening of the contingency, the property of the insurer, and the insurance money payable, the price, as upon a conveyance. ”

“ Many policies also specify a sum to be paid for the loss or permanent damage of a member, as an eye, a hand or foot. Another extension of the personal accident policy is the addition of some form of health insurance, especially the grant of a weekly sum to the insured during incapacity for work caused by certain named diseases. Besides the ordinary joint stock companies which carry on this class of business with fixed premiums, many associations organize for insurance against personal injury by accident, relying upon the assessment of members to pay claims as they mature. ”

“ There will thus be a "saving from loadings."
Every company, as has been said, shows these savings every year, though in varying degrees. Every company, that is, charges the policy-holder more than the actual insurance costs. ”

“ A policy of life insurance, without restrictive words, is assignable by the assured for a valuable consideration equally with any other chose in action, where the assignment is not made to cover a mere speculative risk, and thus evade the law against wager policies ”

“ Duer is of opinion that insurance policies, like bills of exchange, are negotiable, and that a bona fide purchaser for value will take the policy, subject, to be sure, to every legal defence which would be available against the original insured, but free from all equities existing between the original insured and the underwriter. ”

“ An insurer may, of course, assume the risk of such changes in the insured's health as may occur between the date of application and the date of the issuance of a policy. Where the parties contract exclusively on the basis of conditions as they existed at the date of the application, the failure of the insured to divulge any later known changes in health may well not affect the policy. Mutual Ben. Life Insurance Co. ”

“ You have paid the full cost of your insurance for the years it has been in force, and have contributed a reserve which, in part, is to meet the expense of later years. If you drop your policy, obviously, justice demands that you take this reserve cost with you. If it is not paid back, clearly you have contributed money for which you have received no insurance equivalent. Inasmuch as a mutual company ostensibly seeks to furnish insurance at its actual cost and give value received for every penny paid in, surrender values are an essential part of its structure. ”

“ The experiments and proposals in Insurance, whether voluntary or compulsory, against sickness or against unemployment, receive elaborate analysis and criticism; and the experience both of the Friendly Societies and of the German Government is invoked to indicate in what way Insurance may safely be made use of as part of the provision for Old Age, Invalidity, Industrial Accidents, Sickness, and Involuntary Unemployment. ”

“ In the great insurance corporations that are "one-man run," the hundreds of thousands of policy-holders have but one protection. This, notwithstanding the protection of the State laws, the guardianship of the Insurance Department of the various States, and the provisions of the company's charter and by-laws. ”

“ The rule in respect to policies of insurance is, that it is not material whether the written words of a policy are inserted in the body of the instrument, or written on its face or on the margin of it ”

“ There a five-year term policy provided that the insured might at any premium date exchange it for any form of policy then in use at the premium fixed by his age at the time of the exchange or at the age in the original policy by paying the difference in premiums, etc. ”

“ The official reports of Level-Premium Life Companies to the Insurance Departments of the several states show that these companies actually use, for expense of conducting the business, from $6 to $25 for each $1,000 of insurance outstanding. A man carrying $10,000 insurance for his family in these companies must pay on the average, for the expense of the business, about $80 per annum, and if it should be twice or three times that amount he has no redress. Should not these companies stipulate, in every policy, a sum for expenses which could not be exceeded? ”

“ The prin- ciple of this scheme ensures that, in considera- tion of the premiums already paid, a policy for a certain amount — less of course than that named in the original policy, which would be cancelled — would be granted freed from all future pay- ments in respect of premiums, and the insurance money of the new policy would be payable at death. For example — a person insures his life for £1,000 at the age of thirty, the annual pre- mium on which would be £25 a year. ”

“ In the higher order of life insurances, the legislature has endeavoured to arrest the dangerous tendency of insuring beyond the interest, by providing, by statute 14 Geo. III., c. 48, that persons insuring the lives of others shall have an interest in such lives; and it is a principle of insurance law that where a risk paid for has not been run, the premiums shall be returned ”

“ Perhaps no modern commercial enterprise directly affects so many persons in all walks of life as does the insurance business. Insurance touches the home, the family, and the occupation or the business of almost every person in the United States. ”

“ If the insured amount substantially exceeds the value of the subject-matter of a insurance contract, the insurer or the policyholder may demand a reduction of the premium and of the insured amount: Provided, That the reduction of the premium shall be effective for the future. ”

“ In an ordinary life assurance or endowment assurance contract the policyholder has the knowledge that either he or his dependents are assured of the payment of a sum on the occurrence of an event that must happen. In the various forms of insurance, such as fire insurance, marine insurance, accident insurance or burglary insurance, the policyholder pays a premium in order to be insured against a contingency which, if he is an honest man, he hopes will never occur. ”

“ Such is the form of the contract, and such is its character. It has been contended that the payment of each premium is the consideration for insurance during the next following year,-as in fire policies. But the position is untenable. It often happens that the assured pays the entire premium in advance, or in five, ten, or twenty annual instalments. ”

“ In a State that establishes its own Exchange, these three reforms work together to expand insurance coverage. The guaranteed issue and community rating requirements ensure that anyone can buy insurance; the coverage requirement creates an incentive for people to do so before they get sick; and the tax credits—it is hoped—make insurance more affordable. ”

“ If the assured, by his voluntary act, increases the risk, and the fact is not known, the result is that he gets an insurance for which he has not paid.' And again: 'An increase of risk which is substantial, and which is continued for a considerable period of time, changes the basis upon which the contract of insurance rests ”