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that his work was not yet complete; and it is a fact that American life insurance, with its good and bad features, still remains almost exactly as he left it.
It was only after Elizur Wright had ceased to be Commissioner that he discovered a serious error in the calculation of the companies, which may be explained in the following manner:
In the beginning, nearly all the insurance policies were made payable at death, with annual premiums; but the introduction of endowment policies, payable at a certain age, effected a peculiar change in their affairs, of which the managers of the companies were not sensible.
Elizur Wright perceived that there were two distinct elements in the endowment policies which placed them at a disadvatage with ordiary life policies, and he called this combination “savings-bank life insurance.”
An endowment policy, being payable at a fixed date, required a larger premium than one which ran on indefinitely and by customary usage, and the agent who negotiated the policy received the same percentage for commission that he would on an ordinary-life policy; that is, he received a much larger commission in proportion.
This evil was increased in cases where endowment policies were paid for, as often happened, in five or ten instalments; and where they were paid for in a single instalment the agent .received
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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