Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
Verhovay Journal Page 4 Verhovay Journal Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Ass’n OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 8502 West Jefferson Ave. Detroit 17, Mich. PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY THE Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association Managing Editor: JOHN BENCZE Editor: COLOMAN REVESZ Editor’s Office: 345 FOURTH AVENUE ROOM 805 PITTSBURGH 22, PA. All articles and changes of address should be sent to the VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION 345 FOURTH AVENUE, PITTSBURGH 22, PA. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and Canada ---------------------------------$1.00 a year Foreign Countries _____________________________$1.50 a year ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT: P. O. BOX 7, WOOLSEY STATION — LONG ISLAND CITY 5, N. Y. Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Detroit, Michigan under the Act of March 3, 1879. THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT AND FRATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS November 14, 1945 MEMORIAL CELEBRATION LET’S ALL PAY HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO YOUNGSTOWN’S HEROIC DEAD VERHOVAYANS ON NOVEMBER 25TH The date is November 25th, Sunday. The time: 2 PM. The place: St. Stephen’s Auditorium. The occasion: memorial celebration in honor of six heroic dead Verhovay soldiers. The participating branches: all Youngstown, O., branches and those in Campbell, O., and Niles, O. The portraits of the following Verhovay heroes will be presented to their bereaved families: Frank Bolha, Branch 142, Campbell, O.; Zoliié Rayner, Branch 321, Campbell, O.; Albert Tomory, Branch 364, Youngstown, O.; Balazs Csepke, Branch 364, Youngstown, O.; John Rasky, Branch 477, Niles, O.; Joseph Tenke, Branch 477, Niles, O. The portraits will be presented by Supreme President John Bencze. The Supreme Officers will attend in a body. An appropriate program is being prepared. In behalf of the seven branches which joined forces in arranging this magnificent celebration, all sister-branches are invited to attend. These heroes have died for us and their families have suffered irreparable loss. Only a mass-demonstration of our brotherly love and sympathy can fittingly express our deep gratitude for the great sacrifices which these heroes and their next of kin were called upon to make. Let’s all be there and pay humble tribute to the heroic dead Verhovayans of Youngstown and vicinity on Sunday, November 25th, at 2 P.M. Interesting facts revealed by Hon. Gregg L. Neel, Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania, at testimonial dinner given to Oscar A. Kottler, Deputy Insurance Commissioner. On the 29th of October, Hon. Gregg L. Neel, Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania, addressed the Most Excellent Assembly of the Artisans’ Order of Mutual Protection at the testimonial dinner given to Oscar A. Kottler, former Most Excellent Recorder of the Order, and now Deputy Insurance Commissioner, at the Broadwood Hotel Philadelphia, Pa. Several months ago it was reported that Hon. Oscar A. Kottler had been appointed Deputy Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania. We emphasized, at that time, in our report that this appointment bore witness to the importance attributed to fraternal orders by ihe Insurance Department as well as by the Governor of the State. All fraternalists felt honored that the Deputy Insurance Commissioner was selected from among their ranks and it was considered a good omen for fraternalism that a Supreme Officer of a fraternal organizaton was placed in a position from which the State controls and supervises the insurance industry in Pennsylvania. Our interpretation was born out by the fact that when the Artisan’s Order of Mutual Protection gave a fare-well dinner to its Most Excellent Recorder, Oscar A. Kottler, all fraternal organizations of Pennsylvania were represented by nearly a thousand of their officers. The Verhovay was represented by Supreme Secretary Coioman Revesz and Supreme Treasurer John Szalanczy at this important occasion. High-light of the testimonial dinner was the address of Hon. Gregg L. Neel Insurance Commissioner, revelling his evaluation of the fraternal societies operating in the State, his judgment of the former fraternal officer who was elevated to his present high position and, at the same time, defining the relationship of the Insurance Department to the various insurance organizations, all of which is of the interest to fraternalists and, therefore, to the members of the Verhovay. OSCAR A. KOTTLER THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER “This is a happy occasion for me, your Insurance Commissioner,” said Hon. Gregg L. Neel. ‘‘The efficient job which my new Deputy your friend Oscar Kottler, has been doing has proved that my judgment was good in giving him an opportunity to broaden his work in the insurance business. Even so, this testimonial from his old friends and associates in fraternal circles gladdens my heart as I know it does his because you confirm my judgment of the man. The very fact that this dinner was not hastily arranged, immediately following Mr. Kottler’s going with the Department, is the more proof to me that it is a real demonstration of friendship by his life-long friends in your Society, and this assemblage—large as it is—is actually representative of all Pennsylvania Fraternalists, plus the many friends he has already won in the other fields of insurance activity.” PENNSYLVANIA A LEADING STATE AMONG FRATERNALISTS Mr. Neel then proceeded to outline the work done by the Insurance Department for the insuring public of which—he said—“one very important part is the fraternalists which are members of the 46 domestic and 65 foreign societies which are authorized to do business in Pennsylvania.” He pointed out that these societies have nearly one million members in Pennsylvania out of a grand total of 6,036,021 insured individuals. These fraternalists hold lifeinsurance certificates worth more than 666 million dollars which makes Pennsylvania a leading state among fraternalists for “Pennsylvanians hold over 15 per cent of all certificates in force ... Therefore let us doff our hats and say a word of praise for our forebears among Pennsylvania’s fraternalists. THE TASK OF THE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT The Insurance Department of Pennsylvania has a personnel of 94 today, as against 98 in 1932 and 5 7 in 1927. And this in face of the tremendous increase in the kinds and amounts of insurance written since 1927. “The present work of the Department—stated Hon. Gregg L. Neel is split about evenly between my Harrisburg and Philadelphia staff, with the exception that there is a staff of five in Pittsburgh to handle complaints examinations, and investigations in that metropolitan area. The Harrisburg staff includes the Division of Companies which handies all matters concerning the formation, licensing, and supervision of operatons of insurers. This is one of the most important operations of the entire Department. There is also the Division of Agents and Brokers which handles the issuance of licenses to and the supervision of about 8,200 insurance brokers and about 125,000 licenses held by more than 40,000 agents. This Division alone, in collecting fees in excess of $300,000 annually, more than paid for the entire expense of the Insurance Department during the last biennial. The total of monies collected by the Insurance Department and remitted to the General Fund during the last biennial was $991846.49.” SMALL COMPLAINT PROBLEM Speaking of the third Division of the Department, the Insurance Commissioner said: ‘‘I always mention with pride in the insurance business the Division of Complaints, consisting of a Chief in Harrisburg and assistant investigators in both Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. When you consider that the industry of insurance does an annual business in excess of 600 million dollars of premium volume in our Commonwealth, it may surprise you that so small a force of investigators handle all the complaints and perform other work for the Department besides. You might well believe that misunderstanding alone upon the part of so many policyholders would cause the Department endless work. “Therefore, I repeat my word of praise and my feeling of pride in an industry which services its own policyholders so well as to be such a small complaint problem to the Department which supervises its activities.” THE TASK OF THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER “The Insurance Department office in Philadelphia—continued Mt. Neel,—which is in the very capable hands of our honor guest this evening, consists principally of the Examination and Actuarial Division. The law requires the Insurance Commissioner to examine every authorized insurer at least once in every three years, or to accept and approve an examination made by the State of incorporation of the other than domestic insurers. Deputy Kottler, with the assistance of four Principal Examiners, two Actuaries, and a staff of about 25 Examiners must examine our 445 domestic companies and participate in Zone Examinations of many of the approximately 577 foreign and alien companies. A recapitulation of the work of this Examining staff for the year 1945 shows 199 examinations authorized and more than 150 examinations completed.” * • * (Incidentally, this is of more than usual interest to us, for the Verhovay F. I. Association is now being examined by the State. The Examiners of the Insurance Department commenced the examination two weeks ago and it will take another two weeks to complete the task. The staff of the examiners from the State of Pennsylvania, together with the Zone-examiners from other states, consists of eight gentlemen who have set up their headquarters at the Home Office in one of our larger rooms. We mention this, because there are many members who are under the impression that the books of the Verhovay are audited only by our own Auditing Committee, the Board of Directors and, on a larger scale, by the Auditing Committee appointed by the Convention. That is not the case. No examination can be more thorough and complete than that conducted by the State, not only because every item is given careful study and all investments, sales, purchases salaries etc., are weighed carefully and suggestions as to changes are offered in cases when found necessary by the State, but, perhaps even more so, because these gentlemen are first class experts in their particular field whose intimate knowledge of our business excludes the possibility of anything escaping their attention.) * * * The above may give us an idea of the immense proportions of the task that is the responsibility of the Deputy Insurance Commissioner. Says Hon. Gregg L. Neel: “You may well imagine the task which Deputy Commissioner Kottler faces in scheduling, supervising, and finally approving this work of examination which is of such importance to the maintenance of solvency of the insurers which are authorized to transact this tremendous volume —in excess of 600 millions a year in Pennsylvania premium volume. All in all, you can see how necessary it is for me to have a highly capable executive and organizer in charge of the Department’s activities here in Philadelphia. Your society may well be proud that I turned to your ranks for such a man, and I am happy to report to you, his friends and business associates, that he has been all I hoped he would be. He is a man of boundless energy, works long and hard and efficiently, and is becoming as popular in his wider field of activity as he was in his work for your society and in his many other activities in fraternal circles.” * * * Thus ended the address of Hon. Gregg L. Neel, Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania. It was received with great enthusiasm by the onethousand representatives of the insurance industry, companies as well as fraternal organizations, who gathered in Philadelphia to pay tribute to Oscar A. Kottler, a champion of fraternalism, whose appointment to Deputy Commissioner is hailed by all fraternalists in the state as a sure sign of the confidence in which fraternal associations are held by the State as well as by the leaders of the greatest industry in America: Life-Insurance. A major portion of the Insurance Commissioner’s address is published because we feel that his utterances are conducive to the strengthening of the confidence of the membership of the Verhovay as well as the general public, in fraternal Associations. Very little is jcnown, to the public of the relationship of the Insurance Department to the lifeinsurance organizations, and we believe that this address, by revealing the most important facts pertaining to this relationship, will help to develop an understanding of the situation. Confidence is a matter not only of belief but, more so, of the knowledge of facts. The Insurance Commissioner supplied the facts which serve as a foundation upon which the tower of confidence in fraternal life-insurance can be built. The only fitting way to conclude this reports is by expressing our sincere appreciation to Deputy Insurance Commissioner Oscar A. Kottler whose fervent belief in and untiring efforts for the cause of both, fraternalism and the security afforded by lifeinsurance protection, contributed a great deal to the favorable position held by fraternal organizations in -the world of life-insurance. TO THE CONTRIBUTORS The next issue of the Journal will be published on Wednesday, Nov. 28. Contributions for that issue should be in not later than Nov. 21, Wednesday. Contributions should be typewritten, on one side of the paper only, double-spaced, and aot exceed 1200 words, or 6,000 letters. Address contributions to VERHOVAY JOURNAL, ENGLISH SECTION, 345 Fourth Ave., Pittsburgh 22, Pa.
