Life Insurance - A Short History

With the recent economic meltdown, the insurance industry has become the subject of news reports and articles all over the world as the US government offers more and more bailout capital to fledgling companies. As I write this (2nd March 2009), AIG, including their subsidiaries American Life Insurance Co. and American International Assurance Co., have been given $30 million and this led me to write this article: A Short History of Life Insurance.Whilst the act of insuring dates as far back air angry bird to 5000 BC, life insurance is said to have originated in Rome with funeral expenses being covered by at a time when many would have had limited financial resources.Insurance all but disappeared in Rome as the civilization fell in 450 AD. However, in the East similar insurance arrangements have lasted since 1000 BC, such as in which donations were kept for emergencies.In late 17th Century, and against the trend of the rest of Europe, life insurance began being promoted frequented by sailors, shipbuilders, and merchants) became the hub for reliable shipping news and communities of sailors who would insure cargoes etc. Today, Lloyds of London is still an important British insurance market.The Air Swimmers developing English insurance model (that was further consolidated by Nicholas Barbon who opened a buildings insurance office after The Great Fire of London) soon became adopted worldwide. In the US, the first life insurance company available to anyone was established in 1761, though it wasnt until the New York Fire disaster of 1835 that the public began to fully understand its importance. Public liability insurance arrived with the birth of the automobile at the end of the 1800s.By Remote Control Air Swimmer the turn of the 21st Century, the USA became the second biggest market for life insurance premiums after the EU. In late 2008, after the collapse of the US housing bubble, financial institutions began to feel the knock on effect of the , the first being the mid-sized UK bank Northern Rock, followed by the subsequent bankruptcy of the financial services firm Lehman Brothers. This caused the governments of the US and UK to intervene with certain companies caught up in the crisis, including AIG who have recently reported the biggest net loss in history at $61.7 billion for their last quarter.