Typed as spelled and written - Lena Stone Criswell

THE DAILY DEMOCRAT
(Year missing) - Number 103
Marlin, Texas, Friday Morning, March 18, 1955

SEBESTA REPORTS ON
GROWTH, PROGRESS OF CO.

Again in 1954, Southwestern Life Insurance Company set new records in insurance sales and payment of policy benefits during a calendar year, according to the local representative, A. L. Sebesta, as announced by President James Ralph Wood in his annual report
on the company's business operations.  New paid-for life insurance issued in 1954 totaled $228,345,382, a 48 per cent increase over
the 1953 total of $153,680,329.

This unusual gain is primarily accounted for by $69,020,786 of group insurance on federal enployees underwritten by the company.  Excluding this sum, new insurance sales amounted to $159,324,596.  It was the fifth consecutive year in which the company's agency force had set a new mark in producing new business.  Insurance in force at the end of the year was $1,211,600,658, an increase of $146,540,725.

Southwestern Life policies issued to individuals in 1954 averaged $6,057 in face amount, reflecting a continuation of the trend toward
the purchase of more adequate amounts of insurance.  Ten years ago, the average amount of protection provided by each such policy was only $2,509, Wood reported.

Policy benefits paid to policyowners and beneficiaries total $18,359,140, a new record and more than $3,400,000 above the payments in 1953.  Since 1903, when it was organized, the Company's policy benefit payments amount to more than $199,000,000.

The Company's financial statement shows 1954 year-end assets of $322,553,099, an increase of $26,360,792 for the year. Policy reserves increased $22,845,272 to a total of $282,098,661, and appear on the balance sheet as $291,343,774.

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Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing
by The Democrat, Marlin, Falls County, Texas.