Insurance Company Investigations
The investigation into the affairs of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of New York City, which has disclosed successive depths of unsoundness until it has become suggestive of a bottomless pit of corruption, has finally resulted in a suit by forty or more policy holders representing several States, to place the society in the hands of a receiver for the purpose of winding up its affairs, the suit being based on a charge that the organization is insolvent. Coincident with this information comes the announcement that another big insurance company, the Mutual Reserve, of New York City, has a dark shadow over its reputation by reason of an investigation by the State superintendent of insurance. An Albany dispatch says: “Concealment of judgments against the company amounting to $182,767, exaggeration of its surplus by over $300,000, and a fixed policy of delay in settling claims are some of the charges made against the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Company by Chief Examiner Isaac Vanderpool in his report submitted to State Superintendent of Insurance Hendricks, and by him to-day made public. The examination was begun last December, and covers a period back to 1890. The company has headquarters in New York City, and claims assets of between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000.”