Nineteenth-century Americans shunned life insurance as hazardous but embraced trust business.

Evidence

E.g., Viviana Zelizer contrasted the popularity of life insurance and trust business in 19th-century America, arguing that public apprehension of the former as a hazardous enterprise stymied its growth: “The charters of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York Life, and Girard companies gave them the power to do trust business, and their trust departments flourished while life insurance foundered. It was an unexpected development, for these companies had anticipated doing most of their business with life insurance. The Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company started its life insurance and trust business in 1818. In 1823, it collected 696 worth of life insurance, while its trust business yielded almost 70,000. In 1827, it issued only 35 life policies, but almost 304 annuities and endowments in trust. By 1830, the trust business of the company amounted to almost $5 million” — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 149

Categorization

• CANDY: A striking, story-ready fact: in 1823 the same company earned 696 from life insurance but nearly 70,000 from trusts — the two businesses reversed expectations.
• SEED: Excellent angle for an essay on how moral apprehension about risk shapes markets — insurance perceived as betting against one’s own mortality while trusts felt safe.