I must confess that I spent some time combing the internet looking for something funny about the history of life insurance. I was hoping to find a cartoon with a pre-historic cave man (no relationship to the commercials) looking up at a talking Tyrannosaurus, who has a bubble over his head that reads:”Pay me and I won’t eat you and your family”. So much for finding that, so you will have to use your imagination.
I was wondering about the history of Insurance as I never really took many business classes in school so I did not recall knowing any information about it. I thought I would share a little of what I found.
A Brief History of Life Insurance
Different types of life insurance have been noted in history back to 100 B.C., when Caius Marius, a Roman military leader, created a burial club for his troops. When a member died unexpectedly, other members would pay for the funeral expenses. Similar clubs were established, as Romans believed improper burials led to unhappy spirits. Eventually, the clubs started including a stipend for the survivors of the deceased [1].
A Brief History of Life Insurance
Different types of life insurance have been noted in history back to 100 B.C., when Caius Marius, a Roman military leader, created a burial club for his troops. When a member died unexpectedly, other members would pay for the funeral expenses. Similar clubs were established, as Romans believed improper burials led to unhappy spirits. Eventually, the clubs started including a stipend for the survivors of the deceased [1].
After the Roman Empire fell, life insurance didn't reappear until 1662, when John Graunt discovered predictable patterns of longevity and death in a defined group of people, despite the uncertainty about the future longevity or mortality of an individual person. A few decades later, in 1693, astronomer Edmond Halley constructed the first mortality table to provide a link between life insurance premium and average life spans [1].
It wasn't until 1732, though, that the first insurance company in the United States formed in Charleston, S.C., and life insurance wasn't added to its product line until 1760. In 1756, Joseph Dodson reworked Halley's mortality table, linking premium rate to age. By 1759, the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia sponsored the first life insurance corporation in America for the benefit of Presbyterian ministers and their dependents. Episcopalians organized a similar fund a decade later [1].
So-Life insurance started with the church! Who knew?
[1] Staff Writer. (2011, Sept 1). Timeline: History of life insurance. Retrieved from http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/09/01/timeline-the-history-of-life-insurance
