OF AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES BEING A COMPILATION OF THE ORIGINAL CHARTERS AND ALL AMENDMENTS THERETO OF THIRTY PROMINENT COMPANIES OPERATING UNDER THE LEGAL RESERVE REQUIREMENTS WITH EXTRACTS FROM BY-LAWS AFFECTING CONTRACTS 1895 THE SPECTATOR COMPANY NEW YORK ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1895, BY THE SPECTATOR COMPANY IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. PREFACE. THE SPECTATOR COMPANY has had frequent applications during the past few years for a publication containing the Charters of the principal Life Insurance companies of the United States. These requests have come not only from insurance men, but from lawyers, who are desirous of adding such a volume to their law libraries. To meet this demand, we have prepared the present volume, containing the Charters of thirty of the more prominent Life Insurance companies. It will be noted that these Charters have undergone various modifications by amendments passed by the legislatures of the states in which the companies are incorporated. These amendments are also included in this volume, thus giving in full the authority under which these companies do business at the present time. The matter embraced in brackets, [] headings, etc., has been added by the editor. The original Charters present many interesting features, showing that when the earlier companies were organized some of their incorporators had but crude ideas regarding the business of Life Insurance, widely differing from the present powers conferred upon such corporations. It will be noted, also, that some of these companies as originally organized had an assessment feature embraced in their Charters, whereby they were empowered in emergencies to make assessments upon their members to supply any deficiencies in funds that might arise. While this feature has become obsolete in practice, the fact remains that it is still a part of the Charters of those companies. As new forms of insurance have been developed, the powers of the companies have been broadened so as to embrace these features. A reading of these Charters will prove interesting to all persons identified with Life In surance. We have had some requests, also, to include in the volume of Charters, the By-Laws of the different companies, but we find upon investigation that in a great many cases the By-Laws are intended solely for the regulation of the duties of the |