Summary
Life Insurance.–In the course of conversation, it was mentioned to me that there is only one Life Insurance Company in Boston, one in New York, and one very recently established in Philadelphia; but no other in the United States, so far as my informant knew. I asked the reason of this, seeing that these companies are very numerous and useful in Britain. One gentleman said, that early marriages, which greatly increase the chances of the parents living to rear their own children, and also the great facility with which children can provide for themselves in America, render the people less anxious about insuring their lives than they are in old countries where the circumstances are different. Another friend remarked that capital here is so productive, that many persons believe that they can do better for their families by employing it in trade, than by paying it in premiums to insurance offices; while a third hinted that there is also an impatience in the people for immediate returns, which renders them averse to an expenditure, however small, that is to yield its fruits only at a distant period, and after their own death; and finally, that suspicions have been entertained of the stability of Insurance offices in this country.
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- Notes on the United States of North America during a Phrenological Visit in 1838–39–40 , pp. 119 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010