Shortly after the first human being clawed his way up out of the primordial ooze, the first life insurance salesman clawed his way up too, still covered in some of that ooze. That’s why, today, we refer to insurance salesmen as “slick.”

The Ancients

All kidding aside, of course, risk protection has been a goal of people throughout recorded history, and risk protection is exactly what life insurance is all about. More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese purchased insurance to protect their investments against piracy on the open seas. In ancient Babylon, traders would create loans with interest in order to reduce the risk of carrying goods by caravan. Even the Code of Hammurabi, a document written in 2100 BC, gave legal standing to this practice.

Life insurance came about in ancient Rome. The Romans would get together and form “burial clubs.” The idea is that the club would cover the final expenses of any member that died, as well as help out their family for a short time.

The Middle Ages

In the middle ages, insurance took on a different form. The merchant guilds and artisan guilds provided a variety of types of insurance coverage to their members, covering everything from life insurance to fire insurance and even disability insurance.

The Modern Era

Life insurance was illegal in much of Europe prior to the Enlightenment. Today’s life insurance companies had their beginnings, at least in part, after the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688. Lloyds of London, which was essentially a coffee house, became a center of business and underwriting activity.

Life Insurance in the United States

In the United States, life insurance started with the Presbyterians in Philadelphia. Life insurance was opposed by some religious groups, however, and it wasn’t until the 1840s that the industry really began to take off. This may have been due, in part, to the devastating fire in New York in 1835.

Today, life insurance has taken on new forms and formats. We’ve moved from the club model to an investment model (whole life insurance) to today’s popular term life insurance. No one can be certain what the next thousand years holds for life insurance, but one thing seems to be sure: as long as there are human beings, there will be life insurance.

Photo via HaPe_Gera