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.
Insurance itself can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, around 5000 BC, as a way to protect traders. There are also stories of a more humanistic form of insurance, with neighbors helping neighbors and settlers taking care of each other during difficult periods in history. While that has no monetary value attached to it like our current insurance policies do, we consider that insurance because of the gesture of caring and providing for someone else. What we think of as life insurance didn’t come along until later.
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.
Modern life insurance dates from the late 1600’s in England. Life insurance was originally intended, like the ancient Chinese tangs, to protect the transactions of merchants and traders. The death of a business partner, without insurance, could lead to disastrous results to the commercial enterprise. These early life insurance policies protected those who brought goods into society and those who sold them to the public. Life quickly became essential to stable commerce.
The first American life insurance company appeared in 1732 in Charleston, South Carolina, but at its inception, the company only offered fire insurance. Life insurance policies were not offered in the Thirteen Colonies until the 1760’s, but providing them quickly became a big business. After the American Revolution, there were issues with life insurance policies for slaves. One New York insurer supposedly issued 485 policies on the lives of slaves just in two years in the decade of the’40’s. However, the sale of life insurance on the lives of slaves stopped several years before the’63 Emancipation Proclamation. The insurance companies, in the North, were ordered by their states to search their records to purge any policies that indirectly supported slavery. There is no record of any such policies being found.
Regardless of what type of insurance policy you may hold, it is clear that the history of insurance is a rich and complex history. But one constant hasn’t changed. Insurance is designed to protect us from whatever life sends our way. Contact a qualified insurance provider if you have questions about how insurance can benefit and protect you. A qualified insurance provider will examine your specific situation and help determine what type of insurance will best protect you and your family.
Tom Martens is the content syndication coordinator at Lifeinsurance-Southafrica.co.za South Arica’s leading Life Insurance and Life Cover portal.
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