INSURING THE KING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 71, 2 July 1910, Page 10

INSURING THE KING

INSURANCE COMPANIES AND ' HOXARGHS. .

The exact total of the insurances effected upon the life' of the King will in all probability never Jfe known, but the insurance companies have had to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds. Most people laugh at the idea of insuring the King. They triumphantly point out the fact that the person insured has to sign the proposal; hut they •overlook the point that ,in 4hese special insurances it is not necessary to obtain the Royal signature. Indeed, King Edward never signed an insurance policy in his life, and yet he wa9 the most' heavily-insured person in the whole of, the world.

The insurance companies are by no means keen on securing this class of insurance. It is, in the majority of cases, done, however, to oblige big business men, who are in the habit of borrowing or lending huge sums of money, and wish to insure against the chance of losing all they lend. For instance, a man may want to borrow £IO,OOO, and he is able to obtain it on the condition that he is able to persuade some company to allow him to insure the monarch for that sum. The man who lends the money holds the policy, and has the receipts given to him annually. It is this class of insurance that has fallen due of late, but the claims which many of the compani* have to meet are 'by no means all of them large in individual amount. The majority of the policies are for sums under £3OO, and these have been taken out chiefly by persons who-have set themselves up in business, or who are anxious to get themselves or others out of financial difficulties. • , On the other hand, the death of the King will make many a man his own landlord. Scores of indulgent fathers •have built houses for their married children. These parents have not been able to make their children a present ot the same, but have insisted upon the cost of the house being insured on the life of some Royal person, and the recent , death of the King will mean the expiration of many of these policies. The writer of this article interviewed the manager of one of the companies in the world on this subject specially The manager stated that Royal insurances were not accepted wholesale, and his company made a point of ascertaining the real reason of the policy bein* taken out. As a pure speculation it was not allowed, for gambling on the lives of Royalty was not permitted; but, provided the policy was taken out on purely business principles, and the references were satisfactory, no insurance company could very well refuse the business, it is not possible in many companies for a man to insure any other person's life without their, knowledge, and such an act is often punishable by law. ~ It can be readily understood that, it the private citizen is prohibited in this way, Royalty cannot be insured with impunity. It .is one of the oldest dodges on the part of insurance agents to say to those they canvass: ''Our company is all right. , Don't you know that Royalty is Insured : with us?" In the majority of cases the. '. statement is quite true, but not m the sense in which, the person canvassed I Hi; .ne^-orißcTatvitiarsr illno*, was published thegvavi y : of Ma condition was rolloeted at Llouls EschW in tl.o sudden n« of'the premiums demanded to injure his Majesty* life. , From six per eciW for six months, the price rose with a jump on the morning of the day of his'-death, until, late in the afternoon, business was executed in a few,eases at 60 per <vmt>. premium for' one month. \