Life Insurance

Life insurance, because it is a nontangible product, is extremely susceptible to being perceived as whatever people think it to be.

--  Larry Silkes


1983 - SOA - Universal Life Valuation and NonForfeiture: A Generalized Model,  Shane A. Chalke and Michael Davlin, Society of Actuaries - 72p

  • (p30) - Life insurance is a theme that should be approached and handled reverently and discreetly, and, I would add, with a fear of God, for it is little less than holy ground; hence, carelessness and  ignorance, empiricism and charlatanry, should be excluded from its high places. 

--  N.D. Morgan - (President of the North America Life insurance company)

1871-1, NAIC Proceedings - 233p

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE INSURANCE IN THE UNITED STATES: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS, Viviana A. Zelizer, Rutgers University

The first life insurance organizations in the United States were formed in the latter years of the 18th century to assuage the economic distress of the widows and orphans of low-paid Presbyterian and Episcopalian ministers.

  • The idea soon appealed to the secular community and by the early decades of the 19th century several companies had optimistically undertaken the business of insuring life.
  • Legislatures were encouraging; special charters for the organization of the new companies were rapidly and eagerly granted by many states.
  • Life insurance seemed the perfect solution for the increasing economic destitution of widows and orphans.
  • The public, however, did not respond
  • 1976 - SOA - Economic Role of Life Insurance. Society of Actuaries - 16p