Status & Zelevart

Officials of Travelers Insurance Co. were disturbed last week. News was out that an unknown policy holder had threatened to commit suicide unless the company granted him a loan equal to one-third the face value of his policy. Warning the company that his policy was between $25,000 an'' $200,000, the holder directed Travelers to reply through the public notice column of the New York Times with the message: "Status--Proposal and conditions accepted. Signed: Zelevart." Though "Status" represented himself as a man who had frequently borrowed and paid off much larger sums but who had fallen on financially evil days, "Zelevart" could not legally comply with the demand. Its tactful answer to "Status" was that his position was not unique, that "your moral support and affection will add more ... to your family than monetary consideration so obtained." Travelers reported no suicides among its policy holders.

Shortly after the 1929 stockmarket crash. Travelers received a similar threat, but the policy holder bearded the company in its Hartford home office. Officials pointed out that he was using extortion. He did not kill himself until two years later.

Insurance laws provide that a policy is void if the holder commits suicide within one year from the time he took out the policy. Because suicides have increased alarmingly since the Depression, big insurance companies are agitating to up the suicide clause to two years.*

*The 2,473 suicides in New York State last year were 34% up from the 1925-29 average of 1,844.

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