ABSTRACT
What Endowment Assurance Is. – The most popular form of life assurance in these days is that which is known as endowment assurance, because it is much more flexible and adaptable to the varying circumstances of life than the whole-life system. Because that is the case, and because experience constantly impresses upon one how little people really know of the subject, I devote some space to a simple, and, I hope, clear explanation of what endowment assurance is and the purposes which it serves. To begin at the very beginning, a whole-life policy is one under which the insurance company guarantees to pay a certain sum of money at the death of the assured, and this is the form of assurance under which the annual premiums are lowest. The essential point is that the benefit arises at death and not before. An endowment assurance, on the other hand, becomes payable after a fixed term of years, or at the death of the assured should it occur during that term of years. Thus if one aged 30 takes out a 30-year endowment assurance for £1,000, he himself receives for his own uses the £1,000 at the end of 30 years, if he lives as long, while if he should die earlier, his representatives immediately become entitled to the £1,000. Such is endowment assurance – a combination of provision for old age, with provision for dependants in the event of early death.
