Happy (almost) National Life Insurance Day
April 30, 2019 by Insurance Forums Staff
From the “betcha didn’t know” file, Thursday, May 2, is National Life Insurance Day, which according to “The Appreciation Society” is the 349th anniversary of the first day of a life insurance policy ever being written in the United States.
While the first life insurance company in America was organized in 1759 by the Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York under the title, “The Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers, and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers,” (there’s a mouthful!), apparently the first policy wasn’t written until five months into the following year.
Episcopalian priests created a comparable relief fund in 1769. Between 1787 and 1837 more than two dozen life insurance companies were started, but fewer than half a dozen survived.
You might also be surprised to know Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in the creation of that first life insurance company, more commonly known as The Presbyterian Minister’s Fund. No stranger to firsts and inventing things, Franklin was behind the creation of U.S.’s first mutual fire insurance company in 1752, called the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire.
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