ABSTRACT
IT IS doubtful when endowment assurance first took its place as a form of life assurance promoted by British companies. This doubt may well be extended to other forms of assurance. On this point Mr. Manly, actuary, remarked: “There is one portion of the history of life assurance which I suppose could never be accurately written. I refer to the origin of the various forms of assurances, etc.”1 Endowment assurance has, however, taken such a hold of the public mind that we naturally take an interest even in its genesis, and we wonder why its immense progress in public estimation should only have taken place during the past decade or thereabouts. Everything connected with and bearing on it is of importance, in view of the great probability of its becoming a permanent institution in our midst. It is said that endowment assurance dates back fifty years, though not known under that name, but appearing as a kind of term assurance, the amount of the policy being made payable at the expiry of a certain period, or at death, should that event take place previously. But the idea had only occurred to one or two companies, and was certainly not pushed as a speciality. In these early days insurance was rather repelled, as a tax which was attempted to be levied on the community, than welcomed as a boon or a benefit in the provision which it made for the one event which comes alike to all.
