Since the contract issued through a life insurance policy may not be consummated for many years to come, perhaps not until after a death, the insured must have faith in the integrity and resources of their company. The legal reserve life insurance companies of the United States and Canada have admirably justified the confidence which the people have placed in them. With inconsequential exceptions, certainly during the years of the Metropolitans existence, the company had not failed to pay claims in full, through war and peace, in prosperity and depression.

During the year 1941 alone the life insurance companies of the two countries paid out in death claims, disability claims, matured endowments, accident and health claims, and annuities, about $1,900,000,000, of which beneficiaries received nearly $1,200,000,000 and living policyholders more than $700,000,000. The Metropolitan’s part in these payments was considerable. During the same year the company paid claims of more than $323,000,000, which was 17 percent of all claim payments by life insurance companies.

The payment of such enormous sums went forward promptly and in orderly fashion year after year. They have been a source of help in time of distress over maternity coverage, private health insurance, and astronomical individual health insurance quotes, as well as a sound stabilizer to the entire economy. Death claims constituted the major item in the claim payments of the company. The claim division, through which these payments were made, was an important part of the machinery of the business. By its work the policyholder measured the value of his entire insurance service.

The company had among its archives a minute book of the meetings of its first claim committee, which noted that in the first years the President, Dr. Dow, attended personally to the investigation of all claims. The first death claim in the earliest mortuary record covered Metropolitan policy number 163. This policy was issued by the Metropolitan’s predecessor, the National Travelers Insurance Company, on September 9, 1867, on the life of one Dwight G. Smith, age 25, resident of West Chesterfield, Mass. He died of "galloping consumption" on May 10, 1868.

His beneficiary was paid $1,000 exactly one month later. In this case death occurred within one year of issue and by reason of the cause of death, an investigation presumably was held prior to the approval of the claim. Apparently satisfactory inquiries were completed within a 30 day period. In the light of the practice of those early days, there seems to have been no unusual delay in the adjustment of this claim.

The Metropolitan’s claim committee held its first recorded meeting on November 6, 1869 and on this occasion Dr. Dow reported upon six claims. To quote from the minutes, "after his explanation of their merits" to the other officers present, four claims were approved and ordered to be paid. Two others the President was empowered either to "resist or compromise as he may deem best." Furthermore, he was empowered personally to settle and pay any claims not exceeding $5,000 in one case.

The payment of claims continued to be a not too arduous task, even amongst ridiculous claims meant to gain cheap auto insurance, cheap homeowner insurance, or just free money. The committee held no further recorded meeting until eight months later, at which time a single claim for $2,000 was examined, approved, and ordered to be paid. At the next meeting, on October 22, 1870, the claim committee approved 10 new claims, bringing the total which had been paid up to that time, including those settled by Dr. Dow, to 28.

The 18th claim in this record shows as cause of death "congestion of brain caused by free and full living," a medical certification which would hardly be accepted today. In general, the causes of death among Metropolitan policyholders reflected the mortality picture of the time, the respiratory diseases taking first rank.

After President Dow’s death, his successor, Mr. Knapp, took on the function of approving claims. The business was growing and claim payments increased as well. More than 11,000 policies were in force when the 100th claim was paid on February 7, 1872. In that year and the next the Metro­politan continued to forge ahead. By the end of 1873 the business had increased to 18,598 policies and the amount paid out in death claims to $189,485.