MONEY OR YOUR LIFE

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2145, 17 April 1928, Page 7

MONEY OR YOUR LIFE

THE GROWTH OF INSURANCE IN AUSTRALIA.

Australian thrift is not measured alone by bank accounts and the homes of the people. There is another medium by which surplus earnings are stored against the prospect of the "rainy day." Lifq assurance in that country has aome to be regarded by the overwhelming majority of individuals as something more than an investment.

It has firmly established itself with all classes as part of the plan of living. At the last stock-taking there were 834,925 ordinary policies in existence for an assured amount of £235;687,567. The annual premiums paid were £7,783,781, and the average policy was for £282. The amount of the annual premium income of the 35 companies transacting life assurance in Australia represents actual savings invested at compound interest. The money, of course, is re-invested in Government loans, and otherwise in fertilising industry and commerce.. It is surplus income employed in useful service.

Industrial life assurance, mostly undertaken on behalf of young folk, has increased to a remarkable extent in reecnt yeans, the expansion in the last quinquennial period being 65 per cent. The average policy at the last recording period was for £39. Thefre were 1,310,642 policies for a total sum of £49,907,583, and the annual premiums totalled £2,923,519. The annual income relative to ordinary life assurance is £13,525,885, made up principally of £7,783,781 premiums and £4,809,117 interest, dividends, and rents. Out-going annual payments by the 35 companies are £7,769,395, leaving an excels of incomle amounting to £5,756,490. The excess income on industrial policies is £1,577,647. The Australian liabilities amount to £76,590,114, while the assets aggregate £100,582,333, comprising chiefly Government and municipal securities, £55,512,895; mortgages, £22,521,893; loans on companies' policies, £9,812,751; and landed and house property, £3,605,283.

It will be seen from the foregoing figures what a prolific harvest is gathered each year and laid by in the great storehouses to increase with age. In no country (says the Melbourne Herald) has the life assurance habit taken a greater hold on the people than in Australia.