The Distribution of Wage-Earner's Life Insurance

Abstract

The distribution of wage-earner's life insurance is the process of establishing and maintaining the legal relations of insurer and insured between the insurance carrier and the persons who need or desire such insurance. Roughly speaking, it is the selling of insurance. Analysis of the various distribution schemes which have thus far been employed indicates that the distribution process may significantly be subdivided as follows: i. Solicitation and persuasion of the prospect. 2. Information service, that is, the giving of reliable information as to the terms of the contract and impartial guidance as to its adaptability to the needs of the prospect. 3. Underwriting service, including the selection of the risk (with or without medical examination), the taking of the application, the delivery of the policy, and the collection of the first premium. 4. Collection of subsequent premiums. 5. Solicitation and persuasion of the insured to continue premium payments. With due apologies to those readers who may, not unnaturally, have been misled into believing that the title of this article referred to the statistical distribution of policyholders among income groups, occupation groups, age groups, population areas, etc., it may be pointed out that an analogy is here suggested between the distribution of insurance and the distribution of ordinary merchandise. Whereas the two are scarcely comparable with respect to the production' process, i.e., the process of economically producing a sound article, with respect to the distribution process one finds similar problems of economy and efficiency which are far from being satisfactorily solved. The present essay is intended to survey briefly some of the distribution problems of wage-earner's life insurance.