Recently LG Insurance Agency was given a direct appointment with The Hartford Insurance Company to write commercial insurance policies through our office. To show us recognition of this accomplishment they sent us a beautiful Hartford plaque with their symbol, the stag! There is so much history behind these insurance plaques, and I would like to take this opportunity to share this history with you in honor of our appointment with The Hartford.
I love learning about history because it shows us our humble beginnings and lets us know how much change we have accomplished over time. It can be hard to imagine the way the world used to be before we inherited it from our ancestors. Some of the most interesting historical information I have read involves insurance and it’s evolution over the last 200 plus years. Have you ever stopped to think what was used back in olden times to show proof of insurance coverage? Insurance companies used to use what is called a fire mark to indicate that a property was insured by their company. Insured’s would place these plaques between their second story windows so no one could come along and steal it. The fire marks were made out of various different kinds of metals including lead, copper, and iron. These plaques were quite artistic in nature with emblems of heraldic or mythological origin, and they usually had the policy number engraved on them. In the late 17th and early 18th century in London, England there were no municipal or volunteer fire departments, so insurance companies had to hire their own fire brigades to protect the properties they insured. These plaques would help indicate which properties were insured by which company so they could send out their fire brigade to fight the fire. Today of course we do not have Fire Marks to show proof of insurance coverage. We purchase insurance policies and receive what is called a declaration page, along with the policy, which spells out what we’re insuring and for how much. Today’s policies are filled with legal jargon and lists of coverage’s, endorsements, and exclusions which help us identify what types of coverage’s we have, and what we’re insuring. It is simply amazing to see how far we have come in the insurance industry, and I am left in awe wondering what is yet to come for the future of our industry.
