Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
August 8, 1945 Verhovay Journal Page 7 INTRODUCING NEW MEMBER, IRENE MEZEY, OF SUNKIST CALIFORNIA Well, Alexander Gyulay certainly can piek’em! (We mean, new members.) This smiling eye-full is liis newest acquisition—for the V.F.I.A., of course! Looking at her we are not surprised that the land of his operating is called “sunkist” California. If we are correct, the term is an abbreviation of “san-kissed”. We wouldn’t mind taking over the job of the sun for a day or two in California as long as such lassises are crowding its stages... Yep, it’s the stage. Miss Mezey is a dancer, a well known, excellent artist in the line of acrobatic and character dancing. She is introduced in Hungarian costume because she likes best of all Hungarian dances. (So do we, if she is the performer!) The 16 year old favorite of many a stage started her dancing carrier at the age of 5. She was born in Chicago, went there to school and for many years was one of the great attractions of the Bavarian Hofbrau Garden night-club. At the age of 8 she toured the country with Endrey’s troup. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Matthias Mezey moved to California three years ago and since then Irene dances on the stages of California theatres. Just recently she was given a contract by the USO for a series of appearances before our GI's... We are sure that a number of tents in the Pacific theatre of War will be adorned with the picture of the California pin-up girl. . Pretty Irene is well on the road of success. Due to her profession she moves in American circles and seldom meets Hungarians. How come, then, that Mr. Gyulay got her signature on the dotted line? She answered that question herself ’ when talking to our star-organizer. When dancing in Chicago’s reknowned Hofbrau Garden, she always performed Hungarian dances when American Hungarians were present in the audience. Many of them were Verhovayans. It seems that their applause and encouragement led her to the dcision to repay them by joining our organization. In spite of the fact that she constantly moves in American surroundings, she speaks a fluent Hungarian. In fact, she gladly talks Hungarian. Credit goes to her parents who gave her the love of the Hungarian tongue while rearing an American child who crashed the stage at an age when others usually don’t even know that there is such a thing. We welcome Miss Mezey in the Verhovay family and wish her DISADVANTAGES OF NAMING TOO MANY BENEFICIARIES The main purpose of Life Insurance is the creating of an estate which in the event of the death of the insured would provide security for his immediate family. In a way, it is intended to replace to some extent the earnings of the head of the family, which are lost. By insuring the wife or the children, the family is to be protected against heavy financial loss in case either one would die as the average family cannot very well afford the heavy expenses incurred by sickness and death. If the bread-winner dies, the loss is not only one caused by illness, hospital expenses and funeral costs, since it also involves the loss of income. In the event of the death of a member of the family, who has no income, the financial loss is the total of the expenses incurred by the illness, possible hospitalization, operation, etc., and funeral of that member. In either case, the purpose of life-insurance is protection against financial loss which may result in economic destitution for the entire family if not all of its members are covered by life-insurance protection. WHOM TO NAME BENEFICIARY? It follows from the above that the beneficiary of the insured should be the person who would become responsible for the family if the insured should die. The wife should name the husband as beneficiary for it would be his responsibility to pay the doctor, the hospital, the undertaker and to make provisions foy the care of their younger children, if any. She could name as alternate beneficiary their oldest child who, in the event the father also dies, would be the next responsible person. On membership certificates covering children’s lives the father or the mother should be named beneficiary as it would be their responsibility to pay the unavoidable bills. The Verhovay does not encourage the naming of alternate beneficiaries but upon insistence on p^rt of the insured or the parents the beneficiaries will be put down on the membership certificate according to request. As a rule, when parents insure their children, they put down “father and mother” as joint beneficiaries. In such cases the amount of the insurance is divided between the two according to specifications. We kngw from experience that such joint provisions often result in complications. The .mother may die prior to the death of her child and in such case part of the insurance benefit may be awarded to her family (mother, sister, etc.’), in some states. This difficulty, however, has been eliminated by the last Convention which adopted the following regulation: “If a member shall designate his parents as beneficiaries one of whom should die and the member has not changed his beneficiaries, the death benefit shall be paid to the surviving parent.” But other difficulties may arise which could not be met by the provisions of the By-laws. For instance: it often happens, that either the father or the mother becomes incapacitated by some mental illness in which case a court order has to be secured before the other beneficiary can be paid the full amount of the insurance which may be needed to pay all the expenses. Then, too, it often happens that either the father or the mother pack and leave the family for good. If the child should die, that part of the insurance which has been left to the party which had forsaken the family, will be held until claimed by the undeserving beneficiary or until a court order has been secured in favor of the remaining party-Litigations of that kind are very embarrassing and also expensive and can be avoided by making proper provisions. NAMING ONE BENEFICIARY The naming of one beneficiary has its advantages and disadvantages. If the father is named beneficiary on a child’s membership certificate, it will be paid to him without delay and he can take care of all the obligations arising from the decease of his child. However, if the father should die prior to the child, the beneficiary should be changed immediately in favor of the mother, or else serious difficulties may arise if she should have to claim the death-benefits. A husband should always name his wife as beneficiary as it would be her task to settle things for him and to bring up their children. Even if there are no children, she deserves to inherit his entire estate. SPLIT BENEFITS It is to everyone’s disadvantage if the husband designates his wife and the children as joint beneficiaries. We have thousands of membership certificates which provide that half of the face amount should he paid to the wife and the other half distributed among the children. When the death benefit amounts to not more than a - thousand dollars, the widow receives the mere pittance of 500 dollars which as a rule is not sufficient to meet all the expenses incurred by the sickness and death of her husband. The other half is distributed among the children. If there are four children, each of them receives $125. Those who are of age, receive the amount due to them but it is hard to see how it would be of any help to them. They may or may not give it to their mother in order to help her defray the expenses. But the children who have not yet attained age at the time of their father’s death, cannot be paid their share of the death-benefit for that is held in trust for them by the Association, to be paid to them at the time when they attain full age. Thus, the widow receives not enough to pay the bills, and some of the children have their small inheritance frozen. Now if the husband had named his wife as the exclusive beneficiary, she would have received the full thousand dollars out of which she could have paid the expenses and still had some money left that could have helped her to provide for herself and all the success in the world. May she find much pleasure in her association with Verhovayans. At the same time, we congratulate Mr. Gyulay on his new success. At the rate he is going who knows where he may end up. Keep up the good work and much success to you! the children until she could find ways and means to readjust herself to a new mode of living. TOO MANY BENEFICIARIES Often we receive death-claims on certificates which contain provisions similar to those outlined above. Some time ago we received a claim on a certificate which listed the wife and six children (by name) as beneficiaries. However, it was learned that the deceased had seven children, the last being born after the wife and the first six children had been designated as beneficiaries. When the seventh child was born, they forgot to make the proper change of beneficiaries and so he was left out altogether. There was nothing the Association could do but pay the wife and the six children, the beneficiaries listed on the certificate. Undoubtedly, the seventh child must have felt that he was discriminated against by his father, an unhappy inheritance. But asides from this mistake, it was pathetic to see the small checks being mailed out. None of the beneficiaries got any benefit out of the death-benefit and the widow was left holding the bag, for the little that was her share, was far from sufficient to cover all the expenses. Such an arrangement is unfair to the wife and should be avoided. Insurance is intended as a protection and not as some sort of a “tip” which the deceased left to the survivors. Therefore, life-insurance should protect that person which would lose the most if the insured should die. it is understood, that a mother will feed and clothe her children: therefore, it is unnecessary to leave part of the insurance to the children who may not have sense enough to handle even a few hundred dollars. If the mother should die, the father, her husband, should immediately make the change of beneficiary. In such event, the advisable thing to do is to leave the money to the oldest child, or to the one on whom the father can depend. Insurance should be distributed among several beneficiaries only, if ample protection is provided for those who need and deserve it most. PAYMENT OF CLAIM MADE DIFFICULT BY AWKWARD PROVISIONS Survivors are often shocked by the red-tape involved in the satisfying of their claims. From among many instances we mention one in which the wife and seven children, all living, were designated as beneficiaries. The widow of the deceased man was very much annoyed upon learning that she must procure her marriage certificate, her birth certificate, her husband’s birth certificate and the birth-certificate of each and every one of her seven children. It took her months to do so. The children were scattered all over the world. Some were in the armed forces, others lived in distant states. It was hard for her to understand that the request for these certificates was necessitated by legal provisions. Her husband’s birth-certificate was necessary because it was te prove his correct age. The marriage certificate serves to prove that the claimant is actually the person whom the insured named (Continued on Page 8)
