History And Operation of Fraternal Insurance

ere unacquainted with the principles of the life insurance business and, had they possessed a working knowledge of that science, we may hold the belief that they would have rejected such principles. They were too complicated for their plans. Anyway, the life insurance business was in bad repute in the years immediately following the Civil War because of numerous frauds and failures. The fraternalists desired to establish a worthy institution in a simple way. They organized their insurance plan as a mutual co-operative society, the members each paying an equal amount as contribution to a fund for the family of a member who died. It was indeed simple and easy to explain?when a member died, each of the others were to contribute a dollar. This is known as post-mortem assessment insurance. It is workable as long as the members hold together. The history of the Ancient Order of United Workmen shows that the early members were not troubled by actuarial calculations, the accumulation of a reserve, nor the increased cost of insurance as a result of rising mortality with advancing age. Actuaries and their calculations were unknown, a reserve was believed for a greatmany years to be necessary only for commercial insurance, and they had a wholesome respect for and faith in brotherly co-operation to satisfy the demands of the future. The ties which bind men together in an unselfish enterprise were deemed to be sufficient to guarantee prompt responses to assessment calls, t...