INSURED FOR MILLIONS

Evening Star, Issue 17793, 15 October 1921, Page 5

INSURED FOR MILLIONS

VALUABLE AMERICAN BUSINESS HEADS. The announcement that tho life of Mr Adolf Zukor, of the Players Lasky Film Corporation, had been insured by tho directors of tho firm for £1,250,000 has directed attention to tho prevalence of tho custom of insuring heads of businesses. A list is published in a Now York periodical showing the policies held by some of tho prinrnal captains of American industry. Mr Rodman Wanamaker, son of the proprietor of great department stores in New York and Philadelphia, is insured for £1,100,000. His father, Mr John Wanamaker, is insured in policies to tho value of £750,000. Mr J. P. Morgan, head of the hanking firm, is insured for £050,000; and Mr Percy Rockefeller for £500,000, Mr John Willys, tho motor manufacturer, carries insurance worth £150,000. There arc fourteen other men whoso firms have insured them for £250,000 or more. All these men are tho pivots of their respective firms. Apart from the loss of their business genius, their death would probably havo a bad effect upon the firm’s standing and might also cause a. slump in its stock. In cases of partnership as distinct from incorporated companies tho firm has to pay off the deceased partner’s interest. This might cause it serious embarrassment and has often been known to involve tho collapse of a whole concern. When tho late Mr J. P, Morgan died, although ho was enormously wealthy, tho family had a task of great difficulty in obtaining the necessary amount of ready cash to pay legacies, death duties, taxes, and so on. It is understood that his son, Mr H. P. Davison, and other partners in tho firm havo all taken out millions in life assurance so that when any of them dies the firm will have the ready cash to pay off at least part of the 'deceased partner’s interest. Mr B. C. Forbes, tho well-known writer on business subjects, states that the president of a well-known New York concern a few days ago applied on behalf of his firm for insurance to the amount of £2,500,000.