G. D. BALLOU by G. D. Ballou

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 29, 1910

G. D. BALLOU

By G. D. Ballou

Life-Insurance

G. D. BALLOU

Let us for a few moments illustrate the workings of life-insurance. Here are one thousand persons above five years of age in a community. All of these are insured for one thousand dollars each. They pay on an average an annual premium of about thirty-five dollars each. This will put into the treasury of the insurance company thirty-five thousand dollars annually. Among these one thousand persons there will be fifteen deaths annually, which is a liberal estimate for the death-rate among those who are over five years of age. These deaths will call on the insurance company for fifteen thousand dollars. This leaves a twenty-thousand-dollar profit in favor of the company. That is, the community pays the company twenty thousand dollars more than it receives.

But now look again. The insurance companies do not insure every one. Only a select few of the soundest people are accepted as good “risks” for insurance. The death-rate among these strongest, healthiest people is about nine to the thousand, annually. So for every thousand persons who pay in thirty-five thousand dollars annually, there is paid back in benefits to the community about nine thousand dollars, leaving a twenty-six-thousand-dollar

balance annually for the safes of the company and commissions to agents.

Do you wonder that some insurance companies have been able to pay their president a million-dollar salary, and that others have so much surplus that it is bothering them to know how to dispose of it legally? Reader, make these figures with your pencil, and see if you are able to appreciate what was quietly told this people some forty-three years ago. You will find it in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, page 549. One or two sentences read as follows: “But few will realize any returns from life-insurance, and without God’s blessing even these will prove an injury instead of a benefit.” “Through these different channels, Satan is skilfully draining the purses of God’s people, and for it the displeasure of the Lord is upon them.”

Los Angeles, Cal.