Fraternity-Testvériség, 1953 (31. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1953-08-01 / 8. szám
IN PLAIN AMERICAN A monthly page conducted by Edmund Vasvary ONCE IN A WHILE we receive letters from old members who say that in their opinion they already have paid in dues more than the eventual death benefit which will be paid to their beneficiaries. Some of these old members would like to be exempted from further payment of dues, while others would like the alleged difference to be paid back to them. These members joined the Federation before 1928, during those years when the amounts of monthly dues fluctuated and were always way below the dues paid since January 1, 1928. The definite answer to claims like these naturally is that they have WHOLE, LIFE certificates, which means that the monthly dues are payable until the death of the member. If the member wants some change in the conditions, the table of values grants them different possibilities: paid up, extension or cashing in. If the member doesn’t choose any of these, he has to go on paying dues until death. If someone lives much longer than the average lifespan, it might happen that he or she pays in more than the amount of insurance, but this is the chance the member took in taking out the certificate. The Federation also had taken a more serious chance — it was under obligation to pay the whole amount of insurance even if only one single monthly premium had been paid by the member. * * ★ IN DEATH CASES, when the beneficiaries are living in the Iron Curtain countries, it would be the very worst service to them to send the money over through the regular channels yet open. American dollars can be sent only at the exchange rates which are arbitrarily fixed by the Communist governments of those countries. People who tried this know real well what it means. It means the shrinking of the value of dollars to insignificant proportions, practically a total loss. In these cases we put the death benefit amounts in our Orphans’ Deposits Fund, out of which we will pay to the beneficiaries the full amount when money can be sent in a normal way, without any danger of Communist robbery. ★ ★ ★ SOME OF OUR MEMBERS write us indignant letters that their certificate loans are growing every year. The branch secretaries would render a real service to the members and to the Federation if they would explain to the members that if the yearly interest is not paid during the calendar year, it will be added to the principal amount and thus a loan actually grows bigger every year. Nobody can help this. The only remedy is to pay back the loans, even in small instalments, and pay the interest regularly. Some members entertain the idea that the officers or the Home Office are authorized to waive the interest on certificate loans. Obviously this is a grave mistake. The interest is either paid, or at the end of the year it is added to the amount of the loan, as it stood at the end of the previous year. ★ ★ ★ SOLDIER MEMBERS of the Sick Benefit Department, whose payments and benefits were suspended for the duration of their military service, can rejoin the Sick Benefit Department at the old rate, if they secure a medical certificate showing that they are in good health. The doctors’ fees in these cases are paid by the Federation. ★ ★ ★ TAKE YOUR CHOICE. Two of the biggest leaders in the steel industry voiced their opinion about the question: is a slump coming in the steel industry around the end of the year? Benjamin F. Fairless says: yes. Eugene Grace says: no. So everyone who reads these lines knows about the steel situation as much as the two biggest steel-men put together. ★ ★ ★ WHEN WE DISCOVER that there is some inaccuracy in the ages of our members, we notify the branch clerks, requesting their help in straightening out the matter. Most of our branch officers willingly cooperate, while a few of them seem to think that the best solution of the problem is to forget it and don’t even notify the members themselves. This is a harmful and dangerous negligence which later will backfire badly as far as the interests of the members and beneficiaries are concerned. I have explained in many letters that the best policy is to put in order these matters during the lifetime of the member. If it has to be settled after death, we MUST use a different method of figuring out the amount due —and the inevitable deduction from the death benefit is always greater than the amount by which the deficiency could have been paid off earlier.
