PROVIDENT LIFE ASSURANCE

Evening Star, Issue 21720, 15 May 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

PROVIDENT LIFE ASSURANCE

HEADQUARTERS IH DUNEDIN The distinction of being the oldest life assurance company founded in New Zealand belongs to the Provident Life Assurance Company, whose headquarters are in. Dunedin. For more than a quarter of a century the company, which has a great reputation for soundness, Ims rendered a valuable service to the people of New Zealand. At the outset of its career policies were issued only in the industrial branch, but an ordinary branch was inaugurated in 1909, and an accident branch was added three years later. In. operating the ordinary branch the directors wisely decided to adopt the system of deferred bonuses—a system that was successfully instituted by a leading Scottish office about seventy years previous to that time. On so moderate a scale arc the premiums charged that they provide the

equivalent of an annual cash bonus to all policy holders, while the use of the most recently published select tables produce rates which, at older ages, arc actually lower than the non-profit rates of other companies.

The system has now been tested for over twenty-five years, a period which embraced the war and its resultant difficulties, and the success that came the way of the company has confirmed the directors in their opinion that they adopted the most equitable method of allotting bonuses. The largest additions are made to those members who have contributed most to the profits of the company. Most liberal also are the accident branch rates and policy conditions, the premiums being the lowest in Australia or New Zealand. The company issues policies covering _ all sickness; for it recognises that this form of insurance is as much a necessity as life insurance.

•For 1933 the total income of the company was £282,244, and at the present the funds exceed £1,224,868. More than £1,146,000 have been paid to policy holders.