Insurance protects us against risks, and having insurance policies seems to be a normal part of life. While insurance has been around for centuries in one form or another, the versions of insurance policies we are so familiar with today are relatively young.
As early as 5000 BC, the ancient Chinese formed mutual aid groups called tangs. These associations acted as a form of insurance to protect traders. There are man y historical stories and even modern mutual aid societies indicating a kind of humane “insurance,” in which neighbors or settlers or members of the same church or club take care of each other during emergencies. While a caring community cannot be assigned monetary value-many would consider its value to be incalculable-we can consider a caring community to be a form of insurance. Life insurance, however, did not arrive until long after the first caring communities.
In ancient Rome there were “burial clubs.” Members of these clubs were protected against funeral costs and their survivors were given financial aid. The origins of the burial clubs were religious. The Romans believed that if someone was not given a proper burial, he or she could not find peace in the afterlife. For all but the very rich, burial clubs were essential to finding peace in death, because every proper funeral required a large and often lavish celebration.
Life insurance of the kind we have today dates from the late seventeenth century in England. It was originally intended, like the ancient Chinese traders’ insurance, to protect merchants and traders. The death of one party to a business transaction could cause considerable hurt to the other. This historical form of life insurance protected those who brought goods into the city and those who sold them. Life insurance protected commerce.
The earliest American life insurance company appeared in 1732 in Charleston, in the colony of South Carolina, although at its founding, the company only offered fire insurance. Life insurance was not sold in the Thirteen Colonies until the 1760′s, but it quickly became a big business. In the southern states of the US, life insurance policies were issued for slaves. One company in New York allegedly issued 485 policies on slaves in just two years during the’40′s. However, as the northern states became more adamant in their opposition to slavery, insurance companies were ordered to stop insuring slaves. If the records are to be believed, the sale of life insurance on the lives of slaves stopped several years before the Emancipation Proclamation of’63. Ordered to search their records to purge any policies that indirectly supported slavery, life insurance companies found no such policies even before the Civil War.
Whatever type of insurance policy you hold today, one thing that is sure is that the history of life insurance is rich and complex. One constant, however, has not changed. Life insurance is designed to protect our heirs from whatever life sends their way. Speak with a qualified life insurance agent if you have any questions about how life insurance can protect your loved ones. A qualified agent can examine the specifics of your situation and help you find exactly the policy you need.
Tom Martens is the content syndication coordinator at Lifeinsurance-Southafrica.co.za South Arica’s leading Life Insurance and Life Cover portal.
categories: Life Insurance,Life Cover,Disability Cover,Death Cover,Money,Personal Finance,Family
