LIFE INSURING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 933, 17 January 1890, Page 29

LIFE INSURING.

The bas'S of Bertie V. tlie Equitable Life Assurance Association of the United

States, as decided in the Resident Magistrate’s Court of "this city, is both instructive and assuring—the latter because of the pains taken by the magistrate to reach a-just conclusion and the success that attended~'hi&._ efforts, and the former from the valuable faOts presented. No more righteous decision Vv ' a3 _. eV . e1 ’ criveti in the Wellington Resident Magistrate’s Court. Unquestionably the plaintiff had a right to tile verdict. His evidence was too . straightforward and. clear for any doubt to rest Upon .it,, aiid it was never serioUsly challenged throughout the trial. Life insurance now occupies a vast field in the realms of business of these later days. It has many phases and a technique peculiarly its own. Experts in life insurance have succeeded in mastering a very intricate subject. What with the jargon of its literature and bewildering masses of figures, the uninitiated may well be excused from attempting to explore the - maze of detaus. And the introduction of the tontine system has made c mfusion worse confounded. The tontine has its own vocabulary, and is a legalised form of It has been well described as “ a pool in which the longest liver gains the most. The insurer by it lays odds against the lives of others who are in the pool with him. An insurer can claim nothing till the tontine period for which he insures expires, and if he dies before that time he loses all. But if others who in the pool with him die before the tontine time their profits fall to him and the rest of the survivors.- There is a modification of this in the semi-tontine system by which an insurer will get a share of profits after a certain time and be then exempt from premium paying, and at his death his estate may realise on the amount of the policy and the accumulated profits. Then there is the endowment policy of the tontine system, by which an insurer, after a fixed time, levies on the policy, and any bonuses that may have accrued upon it. Even from these very biief suggestions it is evident;*-that, whenever a person decides upon taking a plunge in the tontine pool, he ought to either first of all make himself thoroughly acquainted with the various phases of the system, or secondly act only under sound advice. We believe that many of the agents and/ canvassers of tontine life assurance offices are only partially instructed in the mysteries of the system, and hence mislead others as well as seriously commit themselves. Perhaps this is the more charitable construction to put upon the case Bertie v. the Equitable, which has created such a stir lately.? -Evidently the insured did not understand, and those who tried to make him failed signally ; it may be with misleading; intent, and on the face of it, and according to the evidence, this is seemingly apparent. But Mr Bertie has : done good public service by taking the action he did. The case has thrown a flood of light upon tontine to the great benefit of people who will take,, the trouble to read and understand, and tread warily by seeking sound advice when they approach a region so full of pitfalls as that of tontine insuring.