Insurance offers financial protection against risk, and buying insurance policies has become a normal part of modern life for almost all of us. Although one form or another of insurance has been around for thousands of years, most of the everyday kinds of insurance in common use today are relative newcomers on the historical scene.
As early as 5000 BC, the ancient Chinese formed mutual aid groups called tangs. These associations acted as a form of insurance to protect traders. There are man y historical stories and even modern mutual aid societies indicating a kind of humane “insurance,” in which neighbors or settlers or members of the same church or club take care of each other during emergencies. While a caring community cannot be assigned monetary value-many would consider its value to be incalculable-we can consider a caring community to be a form of insurance. Life insurance, however, did not arrive until long after the first caring communities.
The ancient Romans had their “burial clubs,” through which members were protected against funeral costs and survivors were helped financially. The contributions of a burial club were part of what was considered a proper burial, and the Romans believed that if a person was not given a proper burial, he or she could not rest in the afterlife. And burial clubs were essential to the belief, because part of a proper funeral was a large and often lavish celebration.
Life insurance of the kind we have today dates from the late seventeenth century in England. It was originally intended, like the ancient Chinese traders’ insurance, to protect merchants and traders. The death of one party to a business transaction could cause considerable hurt to the other. This historical form of life insurance protected those who brought goods into the city and those who sold them. Life insurance protected commerce.
The first United States insurance company was founded in 1732 in Charleston, South Carolina, but the company only offered fire insurance. Life insurance policies were not offered in the United States until the 1760s, but it became a fast growing business. However, there were issues in the 1800s with slave owners purchasing life insurance policies for their slaves. One New York insurance company is alleged to have sold 485 slave life insurance policies during a two-year period in the 1840s alone. However, the sale of such policies stopped several years before the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the United States. Some states have passed legislation requiring insurance companies to search their records to see if they sold policies on slaves. So far, there are no reports of any insurance companies finding records of such policies.
Whatever type of insurance policy you hold today, one thing that is sure is that the history of life insurance is rich and complex. One constant, however, has not changed. Life insurance is designed to protect our heirs from whatever life sends their way. Speak with a qualified life insurance agent if you have any questions about how life insurance can protect your loved ones. A qualified agent can examine the specifics of your situation and help you find exactly the policy you need.