On the grant of Settlement Policies under the provisions of the Married Women's Property Acts, 1870 and 1882

Extract

Twelve years have now elapst since the Married Women's Property Act, 1870, gave legislative sanction to the principle that a married man may effect a policy for the benefit of his wife and children, in such a way that the policy will be effectually settled upon them, notwithstanding his subsequent insolvency. I believe that the facilities thus afforded by the Legislature have been greatly appreciated by some classes of the community,—both by the lower middle classes who usually make no settlement upon their marriage, and by professional and mercantile men who have desired to supplement the provisions they made upon marriage, and to settle a portion of their accumulated savings so as to be secured to their families in the event of unforeseen reverses overtaking them.

This principle has since been extended to Scotland. In England the provision was included in an Act dealing generally with the rights and liabilities of married women; but in Scotland the law relating to married women is fundamentally different from that in England, and it was therefore thought better that the provision should be made by a short Act dealing only with this matter, which Act is printed in the Journal for July 1881.

It has now been considered desirable to consolidate and amend the law relating to the property of married women, and for this purpose to repeal the Married Women's Property Act, 1870; and the question of Settlement Life Policies therefore came up for reconsideration. The result has been that the new Married Women's Property Act, which came into operation on 1 January last, re-enacts with some material improvements the clause on the subject in the old Act.