The Work That Was Once Involved In Processing Insurance Applications

The applications for policies came in by thousands each week and were referred, according to their type, to either the industrial department, to the ordinary, to the group, or to the personal accident and health department. The Metropolitan was really four companies in one, since all the appropriate charges were allocated to the respective departments. The policyholder, therefore, paid the costs only on the specific type of insurance he owned.

On the other hand, the cost of the insurance was lowered through the pooling of the services of highly trained experts who supervised activities for all these departments. When, for example, an ordinary no medical exam, low cost life insurance, or term life insurance application was received, it was checked in the application division with the agents and medical examiners reports. It reached next the underwriting personnel, both medical and lay, who evaluated the information received and determined whether or not the applicant met the requirements of the company as to health, occupation, moral, and financial status.

The vast majority of applications-at least seven out of eight-were approved outright. A small proportion were declined, and others, where there were physical impairments or insurable hazards of occupation, were issued on a substandard basis. For those which met the requirements, the policy division next carried on the task of examining, briefing, and serial numbering the application for purposes of identification.

Records of the applications were made for the actuarial and auditing divisions and for home or district office files; and a battery of copy machines made a complete camera record of the application at the rate of one every nine seconds. Then the actual policy was born. Personal data was typed and insurance values for the appropriate age were printed in. After a final comparison was made with facts given in the original term life insurance application, the completed affordable life insurance policy (along with life insurance rates) was sent to the agent, for delivery to the insured.

To prepare and maintain all the necessary records in the ordinary department required a large organization and many contacts with the policyholder over the years. At regular intervals notices were sent that premiums were due, and their payments recorded. The policyholder could change his beneficiary or his address. He could elect a certain type of installment benefit for his beneficiary in the event of his death, so that funds could continue to be handled by the company; or he could borrow money on his policy.

Each of these functions called for a sizable section with a large staff of workers. The records of these activities involving many millions of people called for a large number of working sections, countless figures, and miles of filing cases. When Metropolitan first began, the ordinary department shared a single room with other divisions. It eventually covered more than seven acres of the home office buildings and employed nearly 4,000 workers.

It is hardly necessary to outline the procedures in the issuance and servicing of policies by the other divisions of the company. Suffice it to say that similar processes were followed although, in the nature of the case, there were differences in detail in writing policies for smaller amounts.

Allison Ryan is a freelance marketing writer from San Diego, CA. She specializes in the history of term life insurance companies and low cost life insurance. For affordable life insurance rates and free quotes, check out http://www.equote.com/.

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