The Knights of Columbus - Protecting Families for Generations

When Father Michael McGivney gathered the first Knights of Columbus in the basement of St. Mary’s Church, his first priority was putting in place a program that would protect the families of the men in his parish if they should suffer an untimely death. It would be three years before Knights of Columbus insurance would pay its first benefit of $970.

Last year, we paid out death benefits totaling more than $205 million, and our life insurance program is one of the largest and most successful in the world. In 2007, our total insurance in force climbed above $66 billion. We are number 967 on the Fortune 1000 list of America’s largest corporations. Our insurance sales growth over the past five years is more than 46 percent, while the industry as a whole grew only 8.6 percent during that period. Our lapse rate of 3.4 percent is substantially lower than the industry average.

Once again last year, we ranked first among all fraternal benefit societies in the number of life certificates sold. Our total of 77,089 certificates was 35,000 more than the number two society, and they made up 26 percent of the life certificates issued by all fraternal benefit societies combined. Our overall number of life certificates in force has grown every year since 1970, and now stands at 1,651,151.

Later this year, we will begin to offer a large new portfolio of life insurance products. We have spent the last year and a half designing and pricing these new products, and have worked hard to ensure that they do the best job of meeting the needs of our members in the 21st century. When they become available in October, they will provide great value at a low cost. While working on these new products, we have also introduced a paid up additions rider that allows members to buy life insurance with a single large payment as an alternative to regular, ongoing premium payments. We’ve also expanded availability of our popular long term care products this year. And finally, we will shortly replace the new member program with a new member annuity.

Effective on September 1, every new member will be offered a nonqualified tax deferred annuity with an initial deposit of $100. It’s a great opportunity to encourage every new member to become an insurance member, and for councils to establish eligibility for the Star Council award.