Life, 1923-02-22 · page 3 of 36
Life — February 22, 1923 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **no cartoon or satirical content**. It is a formal financial document: the "Seventy-eighth Annual Statement" of the New York Life Insurance Company, dated January 1, 1923, addressed to policyholders. The text is a message from President Darwin P. Kingsley explaining the company's mutual structure and financial position. It emphasizes that policyholders own the company as property, comparing life insurance policies to real estate bonds for reliability. The bulk of the page presents a balance sheet showing assets of approximately $988.5 million against liabilities of the same amount. This is **corporate advertising/financial disclosure**, not editorial satire or cartooning—a standard format Life magazine used for paid statements from major institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE New York Life Insurance Co. (Incorporated under the Laws of New York) 346 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N.Y. Seventy-eighth Annual Statement TO THE POLICY-HOLDERS: e As the Company becomes larger it becomes increasingly important that you should better understand your relation to it and better appreciate what you as a policy-holder really own, and what your property is doing for you and for others. Here we are—mutual, no stock, no dividends except to you, no division in purpose, just a general plan to stand by each other against the vicissitudes of life and against that certain but unknown date when our obligations to our families will mature. We together, approximately 1,500,000 of us, stand pledged to help each other, and our dependents, to the extent of $4,000,000,000. As the laws of Life Insurance figure it, our present liability is $788,236,317.00. We have in hand, accumulated as a sinking fund with which fully to redeem these mutual pledges, just under $1,000,000,- 000. See balance sheet below. This is a great property. Your policy represents your share in that property; your policy IS PROPERTY. Do you owna piece of Real Estate? Your Real Estate is not so certain in its value as your Policy in this Company. Do you own a Bond? The best Bond is no more certain than your Policy, and lacks its EMERGENCY POWER. You bought your bit of Real Estate, your Bond and your Life Policy for the same purpose—to protect your dependents, to protect yourself, in old age. Your Life Insurance Policy is as certain as your Bond, more dependable than your Real Estate. This property is being distributed almost as fast as it accumulates under an increas- ing business. In 1922 we paid you (policy-holders and beneficiaries) $130,143,247.58. DARWIN P. KINGSLEY President. Balance Sheet, January 1, 1923 Bonds at Market Value, as Determined by Insurance Department, State of New York LIABILITIES $788,236,317.00 22,747,657.36 ASSETS Real Estate owned First Mortgage Loans— $8,238,684.28 Policy Reserve Other Policy Liabilities Dividends left with Com- pany to Accumulate at Interest 10,492,741.71 Premiums, Interest and Ren- tals prepaid 57,592,277.53 On Residential and Busi- ness Properties 143,070,999.93 Loans on Policies 166,099,516.84 3,508,893.64 Bonds of the United States 115,370,340.00 285,079,312.14 Bonds of other Governments, of States and Municipali- 152,583,974.81 8,816,310.47 51,700,794.96 $988,552,210.96 Taxes, Salaries, Accounts, etc., due or accrued .. Additional Reserves ... Dividends payable in 1923 Reserve for Deferred Divi- dends General Contingency Funds not included above .. 7,452,155.33 7,946,366.00 48,769,410.67 39,310,473.00 60,088,196.25 $988,552,210.96 comicbooks.com