Annual meetings being held by life insurance companies, and published statements of the year's work, recall one feature of this business that should not be forgotten. Insurance is steadily becoming more popular in Canada, as the growing record of policyholders proves.
The advance in numbers has been consistent. Wise business administration is evidenced by the fact that, even during the depths of the depression, insurance companies in Canada remained on absolutely sound footing.
But this success of insurance companies from their own point of view, stabilizing as it has been to business generally, is not all that was achieved. Policyholders, whose resources became less as one bad year succeeded another, found at the head and branch offices sympathetic consideration.
There was generous advance of money to tide over bad periods or stave off the evil day when there would be no more revenue coming in. Generally, individuals wise enough to be well insured were able, with a little time, to find a way out of their difficulties; but without this financial help the prospect would have been black in many cases.
Insurance companies may well be proud of their record during the last decade. Not only did they keep their own flags flying mast-high, but they assisted innumerable Canadians to weather the storm. That has been a distinct public service. The service will not be forgotten by those who were helped by it, but it should be more definitely impressed on the public mind.
From an editorial in "The Globe and Mail," Toronto, January 23, 1939.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.