Governmental Regulation of Insurance in Canada

On the first of January, 1910, the total amount of life insurance in force in Canada, exculsive of that on the assessment plan, amounted to over 780 millions of dollars. Of this, all, excepting a little less than 68 millions of industrial insurance, represented what we may properly style as ordinary or old line business. The policies to the number of upwards of a million were distributed between 53 different companies of which 23 were Canadian, 16 American, and 14 British. The British companies carried risks amounting in the aggregate to less than 47 millions and they seemed to be, on the whole, inactive in the matter of securing new business. In 1909, 8 of the 14 British companies carrying risks in Canada wrote no new Canadian business at all. On the other hand, the American companies make a much better showing; the sum total of their policies was nearly 218 millions of dollars, of which approximately one-fifth represented industrial insurance. The rest of the business, amounting to over 515 millions, was carried by the Canadian companies themselves. From these figures, it is evident that the home companies are now strongly entrenched within their own field. A comparison of the present situation with that of thirty years ago would show that the risks of the Canadian companies have increased much more rapidly than have those of their American rivals. In 1879, the amount of the policies of each in force in Canada was less than thirty-four millions. In the noteworthy expansion of life insurance which has since taken place, a number of causes have combined to swell the aggregate business of the Canadian companies. Not the least important factor here to be considered is that of sentiment—a desire to develop Canada for the Canadians and to promote and foster home enterprises. Moreover, on the more popular forms of policies, the premium rates offered by the home companies have been, as a rule, lower than those of their neighbors across the border.