Lvsun-ixtz AND Tunrpr.
The effect of the heavy fall in Interest rates on investment securities and also in banking deposits is very clearly seen in the operations of leading Insurance companies. Thus at the recent meeting of the Refuge Assurance Company the chairman stated that a feature of the company's business last year was the increased demand both for annuities and assurances by single premium. A further interesting point from the address of the chairman was his assertion that present hard times are tending to increase thrift. Last year the Refuge issued nearly 1,009,000 policies in its Industrial Branch assuring sums of over £17,000,000, while in the Ordinary Braila' the new sums assured exceeded £6,000,000. The company's latest report is a thoroughly sound one, and among other things it shows that sums which were transferred last year to Investments Reserve, owing to the decline in gilt-edged securities, being no longer required, have been brought back to the Life Assurance Funds, with the exception of £500,000 which has been retained in the Appropriate Invest- ments Reserve Fund for each branch as a matter of precaution (Centimied on page 8584
Financial Notes
(Continued from page 350.)
in view of future uncertainties. The total of these Funds is now only a little under £3,000,000.
BRITANNIC. ASSURANCE.
The latest report of the Britannic Assurance Company discloses a very satisfactory position. The total funds increased during the year by £1,316,673 and now stand at £21,735,419. The net new business in the Ordinary Branch was £2,518,000 and in the Industrial Branch the new policies amounted to the large total of £9,415,609 sums assured. Moreover, the valuation, which the report states was carried out upon the usual stringent basis, gave a surplus in the Ordinary Branch of £377,357. Of this stun £220,590 was applied to the provision of a reversionary bonus of 38s. per £100 sum assured to policies in the Immediate Profit Class and to make adequate provision for policies in the Accumu- lated. Profit Class. The surplus in the Industrial Branch was £622,208 and of this sum £60,000 was transferred to Investment Reserve--Fund and £160,000 set aside to provide an addition to stuns assured under certain premium-paying policies becoming claims by death or maturity between April 1st, 1933, and March 31, 1935, varying from 5 per cent. for policies ten years in force to 20 per cent. for policies in force for twenty-five years or more.
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