NATIONAL MUTUAL LIFE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19819, 6 January 1930, Page 10

NATIONAL MUTUAL LIFE.

SIXTIETH ANNUAL MEETING.

Outstanding events in the history of the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia, Limited, were outlined by the chairman of directors (Sir John MacFarland), at the sixtieth annual general meeting of members, which was held at the head office of th-3 Association 011 December ISth, 1929. Sir John MacFarland traced the rise in the amount of the assurance fund from 1869, when the Association was ?etablished as a mutual institution without any capital, until to-day, when its assurance fund amounts to £31,54<,5M.

PEOSPEROUS YEAE. In moving the adoption of the directors' report and balance-sheet, the chairman said:— The report that you have before you contains the particulars of a prosperous year of business. The new business transacted was £9,868,350, which is the largest amount written m any year. The ordinary annual premium income was £197,000 greater than the amount received in the previous year. The net amount of interest received after deducting £125,677 paid for rates and taxes, which is £7«,261 more than the amount paid for rates and taxes in 1928. is £1,608,374, and this is equal to £2 6s per cent, of the mean funds in excess of the amount that wo assumed in our calculations the funds would earn. The amount added to the funds during the year was £-,- 400,264. OVEE £2,000,000 PAID TO POLICYHOLDERS. The amount paid for death claims was £815,860, or £83,076 more than the amount paid in 1928; but the mean amount at risk has increased from £75,000,000 to £81,000,000. The amount paid is only 59.7 per cent, of the expectation. It represents an average amount of £528 a policy; but tho individual amounts paid range from £IO,OOO to £l4. It will be seen that our business is not confined to any one class in the community. The amount paid included £173,966, which had b-sen added as bonuses. • Of the 1544 policies under which claims were paid 110 had been in force for less than two years, and of these 59 had been in force for less than one year. Most of these claims wire due to accident or causes that could not be foreseen. The average duration of all the policies was eighteen years and eleven months. The amount paid under endowment assurances matured was £654,623, which includes £177,000 bonus additions. Other amounts bring the total paid to policyholders or their representatives to £2,093,781.

ASS USANCE FUND OVER £31,500,000.

The ordinary expenses of management were slightly lower in proportion to the renewal premiums, but the total expenses were about the same percentage of the total premiums when compared with the previous year. The principal changes in our assets during the year were increases of £126,330 in Government securities, £1,326,430 in debentures of municipalities and other public bodieß, £55,545 in mortgages, £i>75,066 in loans to members on the security of their policies, £118,646 in loans on policies with collateral security and £111,710 in house property. The last item represents amounts expended on our new building in Brisbane, in the purchase of a property in Palmerston North (New Zealand), to house our agency in that important district, in the erection of offices in Bloemfontain (South Africa), and in the purchase of property adjoining our branch office in Capo Town. The amount of the assurance fund on September 30th, was £31,547,594.

HISTORY OP ASSOCIATION. The Association was established on. August 20th, 1869, and it has therefore completed its 60th year. As a, purely mutual institution it started without any capital; at the end of the first five years, after paying expenses of every sort, an assurance fund of £15,464 had been accumulated, and after setting aside £3OOO as a reserve for unforeseen contingencies, £3098 was divided among the policy-holders. This wonderful result was made possible only by the strict economy which was enforced by the founder (Colonel J. M. Tempteton), and by his self-denial. It to6k twenty-one years to accumulate the first million pounds of funds, but those were the years in which the foundations of the Association were laid securely. At the end of forty-seven years the assurance fund amounted to £10,000,000. The second £10,000,000 took eight years to accumulate, and the third ten million, or rather eleven millions and a-half, have been added in the last five years. During the sixty years the Association has received in premiums £44,272,000; it has returned to its policyholders in the form of bonuses the equivalent of £11,807,000 in cash. The interest received from the investment of the funds amounts to £18,845,000 after deducting more than £787,000, which has been paid for taxes. It has paid under its policies £27,314,055, and tho assurance fund now amounts to £31,547,594. Thi3 fund is the property of the policy-holders, who numbered more than 200,000 at the end of the financial year, and it is administered solely for their benefit. The Association may be described as a partnership whose only object is to do its best for all its members.

The results which are now presented to you are due in a large measure to the services of the officers and agents in all branches of the Association's organisation. We have a very loyal staff, and they have worked very efficiently during the year. Sir Robert Gibson seconded the motion, which was agreed to unanimously. Sir John MacParland was re-elected director, and Messrs W. M. Jarvie and H. C. Tudehope were re-elected auditors. c • —o