This week in Christian history: Criswell dies, Presbyterian Church founds life insurance company, anti-Nazi pastor born
Presbyterian Church founds first life insurance company in America — January 11, 1759
This week marks the anniversary of when the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded what is believed to be the first life insurance company in North America.
The entity was known as “The Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers.”
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Later called the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund, according to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, it is generally considered “the oldest life insurance company in America.”
“It was among the first life insurance companies to broach the idea of offering life insurance to all human beings,” noted the Society.
“By the early 1760s, the corporation had forty-three contributors and has issued twenty-one policies to ministers, and its assets grew steadily over the next several years.”
The fund also took part in the American Revolution, supporting independence from the British Empire and loaning 5,000 pounds to the Continental Congress in May of 1777.
