CHAPTER III
ASSESSMENT LIFE INSURANCE

THE description which has been given of the simple mathematical principles of life insurance will enable us to consider the claims of a form of life insurance which not inaptly might be called unbusinesslike life insurance. It is known as assessment life insurance. At one time, not very long ago, institutions which furnished protection on this plan transacted fully one-half the entire life insurance of the I-nited States; but of late the decline of this business has been marked. The errors of the plan have shown themselves in actual practice. Some of the companies have reorganised as regular insurance companies on the level premium basis, not without hardships to their policyholders; others, being unable or unwilling to reform their methods, have failed. Yet others still continue upon the old plans, being given a longer lease of life than their fellows because of one or other extraneous interference with the normal operation of the plan.

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