NATIONAL MUTUAL LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 20375, 6 January 1930, Page 7

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 tho sixtieth annual general meeting of members, which was held at the head office of the association on December 18, 1929. on John MacFarland 1 traced the rise . m the amount of the ‘assurance fund from 1869, when the association was established as a raiitual institution without any capital, until to-day, when its assurance fund amounts to £31,547,594. ■ ' PROSPEROUS YEAR.’ ; i In moving the adoption of the directors’ report and balance-sheet, the Chairman said: — The report that you have before yon contains the particulars of a prosperous year ,of business. The new business transacted was, £9,868,350,. whicli is the largest amount written in 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 £73,261 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 we assumed in our calculations the funds would earn. The amount added to the funds during ihe year 'was £2,400,264. OVER £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 lias increased from £75,000,000 to £81.000,000. The amount paid ,is only 59.7 1 per cent.; of the expectation. ■ It represents an average amount of £528 a policy; but the 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 been added as bonuses. Of the 1,544 policies under which claims were paid 110 had been in force for less than two years, and of these fifty-nine had been in force for less than one year. Most of these claims were 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 policy-holders or their representatives to £2,093,781. ASSURANCE 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 wore increases cf £126,330 in Government securities, £1.326,430 in debentures of municipalities and other public bodies, £55,545 in mortgages, £575,066 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 hew 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 Bloemfontein (South Africa), and in the purchase of property adjoining our branch office in Cape Town. The amount of the assurance fund on September 30 was £3l, 547,594. .. . ■ HISTORY OF ASSOCIATION.

The association was established on August 20, 1869, and it lias therefore completed its sixtieth year.' As ; a purely mutual institution it starred 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 isetting aside £.3,000 as a reserve for, unforeseen contingencies, £3,098 was divided among the', policy-holders. This t wonderful 'result was made possible* only by the strict economy which was enforced by the. founder (Colonel J. M. Templeton), and by his selfdenial.. It took 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 fi ,r e 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 tbe 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 the assurance fund now amounts to £31,547,594. This fund is : the propeity of the policy-holders, who numbered more than 200,000 at the end of the, financial year, and it is , adminis-tered-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. Wo have a very , loyal staff, and they have workqed very efficiently during the year.

Sir Robert Gibson seconded the motion, which was agreed to unanimously. • Sir John MacFarland was re-elected director, and Messrs W. M. Jarvie and TT. C. Tudehope were re-elected auditors.

(Published hv arrangement.)