Did you know June 28 is National Insurance Awareness Day? This day serves as a reminder to all small business owners to review their insurance policies to make sure they have the right coverage for their organizations. While the origin of this day is a mystery, what’s widely known is how important insurance is in many aspects of our personal and professional lives.

You may want to advise your clients to take the opportunity to review their insurance policies and be sure they have the right coverage in place. June 28 can also serve as a good opportunity to teach your clients about the value of insurance and educate them more on what you can offer. 

Insurance Facts

It’s easy to take insurance for granted, as professionals in this industry. Whether you are a seasoned professional, or just starting your insurance career, how much do you know about the insurance industry’s origin? 

1. According to Brittanica, “Insurance in some form is as old as historical society.” Bottomry contracts were known to merchants of Babylon as early as 4000–3000 BC. The Hindus also practiced Bottomry in 600 BC and it was well understood in ancient Greece as early as the 4th century BC. “Under a bottomry contract, loans were granted to merchants with the provision that if the shipment was lost at sea the loan did not have to be repaid. The interest on the loan covered the insurance risk.” 
2. Ancient Roman Law recognized the bottomry contract in which an article of agreement was drawn up and funds were deposited with a money changer. Marine insurance became highly developed in the 15th century. In Rome, there were also burial societies that paid the funeral costs of their members out of monthly dues. The insurance contract also developed early. It was known in ancient Greece and among other maritime nations in commercial contact with Greece.
3. Insurance, as we think of it in the modern age, came into existence sometime around the Great Fire of London, where the devastation that took place brought about the idea of property insurance. Some insurance companies were started in England after 1711, during the so-called bubble era. Many of them were fraudulent, get-rich-quick schemes concerned mainly with selling their securities to the public. Nevertheless, two important and successful English insurance companies were formed during this period—the London Assurance Corporation and the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation. Their operation marked the beginning of modern property and liability insurance. 
4. The famous Lloyd’s of London had its start in a coffee shop. Although the first informal gatherings of shippers and investors around 1688 were not intended to produce an insurance mechanism, Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse on London’s Tower Street witnessed the first days of what was to become the world’s best-known insurance underwriting society. Financial protection contracts initially emanating from Lloyd’s coffeehouse were dedicated to ships and their cargo.
5. Benjamin Franklin founded America’s oldest, continuously active insurance company in 1752. Franklin and several prominent business associates established the Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. The Contributorship, as is now its common reference, was a proactive insurance carrier refusing to provide coverage to houses and other structures that were not constructed according to strict building standards. During the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777, the Contributorship hired a chimney sweep to maintain the chimneys of insured houses that were still occupied by the insureds.
6. Workers’ compensation laws were first introduced and implemented between 1881 and 1884 in Germany by the “Iron Chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck. The U.S. did not attempt to join this social revolution until the early 1900s. Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana and New York each introduced workers’ compensation statutes between 1902 and 1910, but all four laws were struck down under constitutional challenge as violating “due process.” Wisconsin in May 1911 became the first state to effectuate an ongoing workers’ compensation program that survived legal challenge.Before the enactment of these laws in America, workers injured on the job had to seek recovery through the court system. To gain recovery, they had to prove their employer was negligent in causing the injury. Many did not have the funds to wage this fight leaving injured workers without income and somewhat destitute. Legends exist that workers injured in coal mines would be carried home and placed on their doorstep. (Taken from, “The Insurance Professional’s Practical Guide to Workers’ Compensation.”)

Sources
www.britannica.com/topic/insurance/Historical-development-of-insurance
www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/mag-features/2011/01/10/185786.htm
www.daysoftheyear.com/days/insurance-awareness-day/