On This Day
1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money (the benefit) in exchange for a premium, upon the death of an insured person (often the policy holder). Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness can also trigger payment. The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as one lump sum. Other expenses, such as funeral expenses, can also be included in the benefits.
Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; common examples are claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot, and civil commotion.
Life-based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:
Protection policies – designed to provide a benefit, typically a lump sum payment, in the event of a specified occurrence. A common form—more common in years past—of a protection policy design is term insurance.
Investment policies – the main objective of these policies is to facilitate the growth of capital by regular or single premiums. Common forms (in the U.S.) are whole life, universal life, and variable life policies.
Born On This Day
1395 – Michele of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France (d. 1422)
Michelle of France (11 January 1395 – 8 July 1422) was a Duchess consort of Burgundy. She was a daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. She was named for Saint Michael the Archangel after her father noted an improvement in his health after a pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel in 1393.
Biography
Although rumors persist that Michelle and her siblings were neglected by their parents, this was not the case. Queen Isabeau purchased luxurious toys, clothes and gifts for her children, and regularly wrote them letters when apart. In times of plague, she ensured they were sent to safety in the countryside.[1]
In June 1409, Michelle married the future Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, later known as Philip the Good. She became melancholic in 1419 following the involvement of her brother, the future King Charles VII of France, in the murder of her father-in-law, John the Fearless. Michelle had borne a daughter, Agnes, but she died in infancy.
Michelle fell ill and died in Ghent in 1422 while her husband was away preparing for the battle of Cone. All of the inhabitants grieved, as she was much loved by the people. Michelle was interred in the monastery of St Bavon near Ghent. Only a fragment of her recumbent tomb still remains.
After her death, it was believed she had been poisoned by a lady attendant from Germany, Dame de Viesville, a close confidante who had been dismissed to Aire just before Michelle’s death. The lady was never charged.
FYI
By Katie Rife: R.I.P. “Fast” Eddie Clarke, Mötorhead guitarist
By Joanne Kenen: Tennessee provides possible preview of health insurance markets
The Tennessee plan, Mershon found on her travels in Tennessee, is not the perfect and affordable solution that the Republicans tout. Too many people are left out or unprotected. But nor does it justify every fear or attack line of the Democrats. How much the other AHPs will look like the Tennessee program – and how much they differ and how well they cover people – is something we’ll all learn more about in the coming months.
By James Vincent: Skype starts testing new ‘private conversations’ with end-to-end encryption
By Heather Chapman: Three South Dakota tribes sue opioid makers over addiction
By Christine Cube: From the Beyond Bylines Team: Our 2018 Blogging Resolutions
By Ken Doctor: Newsonomics: Can cross-subsidy (and nursing homes) help revive the Singapore Press?
Comments from Podcasters?
By Nicholas Quah: What the rise of the smart speaker might mean for podcasts (and on-demand audio in general)
By David Rasbach: How threatening a volcano is Mount Baker? Perhaps it’s best to ask the mountain, itself
By Josh Jones: How Reading Increases Your Emotional Intelligence & Brain Function: The Findings of Recent Scientific Studies
Have you traveled on or had your art displayed on this road?
By TravelNevada: Win an Artists’ Dream Journey Up Nevada’s Most Inspiring Highway
By Jessica Leigh Hester: Mapping the Ghostly Traces of Abandoned Railroads
By Mary Annette Pember: The Midwives’ Resistance: How Native Women Are Reclaiming Birth on Their Terms
Aboriginal or indigenous women, especially those in the United States, are overwhelmingly classified as high-risk. In Canada, according to Statistics Canada, birth outcomes among indigenous peoples are consistently less favorable than among the non-indigenous population. Native American and Alaska Native women have higher rates of maternal morbidity or injury compared to the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The risk of maternal death for Native women is twice that of white women in the United States.
The infant mortality rate for Native American and Alaska Native babies is .83 percent, second only to rates for non-Hispanic Black American babies of 1.13 percent.
By Dan Neilan: There was a lot of dancing on the Thor: Ragnarok set, most of it good
By Tom Kuegler: How To Write Something That Everybody Will Remember
Good words move you.
Great words make you cry.
Perfect words stick with you forever.
By Ricardo Martin Brualla: Seattle 3 Year Time-lapse Video from the Space Needle
By James Risen: My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror
I Started the Media Men List My name is Moira Donegan.
I was incredibly naïve when I made the spreadsheet. I was naïve because I did not understand the forces that would make the document go viral. I was naïve because I thought that the document would not be made public, and when it became clear that it would be, I was naïve because I thought that the focus would be on the behavior described in the document, rather than on the document itself. It is hard to believe, in retrospect, that I really thought this. But I did.
By Christine Schmidt: It’s not “citizen journalism,” but it is “citizens taking notes at public meetings with no reporters around”
In an era of slowly shrinking public information and disagreements on facts, Holliday is emphatic that showing up to public meetings is as crucial as ever.
“We built the aggregator because we were already seeing hits of that [shrinking accessibility to public information] locally,” he said. “Public meetings are really at the nexus of a lot of issues we talk about as journalists. There’s a place where you as an individual in a society can go and hold your officials accountable face to face.”
By Beth Skwarecki: The Life Hacks We Actually Use
By gzumwalt: Money Maker
By Tom Harkins: 15 Great DIY Compost Bins For Homesteaders
Widget not in any sidebars
Word of the day
- deus ex machina January 14, 2025Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2025 is: deus ex machina • \DAY-us-eks-MAH-kih-nuh\ • noun A deus ex machina is a character or thing that suddenly enters the story in a novel, play, movie, etc., and solves a problem that had previously seemed impossible to solve. // The introduction of a new love […]Merriam-Webster
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 15 January 15, 2025Picture of the day Cluster of Breath roots (pneumatophores) of a Taxodium distichum at the water's edge. Focus stack of 4 photos.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 14 January 14, 2025Picture of the day Mute swan (Cygnus olor) at Lake Geneva during the golden hour of sunset
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars
Widget not in any sidebars