Financial Importance of the Reserve

The Insurance Year Book for 1914 shows that thirty-four companies doing business in New York State in 1913 held on December 31 of that year total admitted assets amounting to $4,351,042,584 and of this sum $3,677,450,917, or over 84 percent, was held as reserve. A comparison of the total admitted assets and the reserves of the five largest life-insurance companies in the United States is also furnished in the following table:

These figures likewise show that 80 to 90 percent, of the total funds held by these companies is included in the reserve. The possession of these vast resources justifies a careful analysis of the sources and purposes of the reserve.