Burial Insurance & Health Insurance Have Their Roots In Ancient Rome?

If you would like to learn some interesting facts about burial clubs, then you should read this article. Specifically we’ll discuss how the history of burial insurance traces back to ancient Rome, why the burial clubs were formed, and different rules and regulations of the clubs.

Ancient Rome has been credited as the original source of many of our modern day comforts. Strangely enough, this also includes the origins of both burial insurance and health insurance. The system was designed to help families of injured or sick people to cover the high costs of burial. This form of insurance was mainly used by the poor, slaves, military members, and even average Roman citizens that were not certain they could afford burial costs. Since the wealthy had enough capital to cover all of their final expenses, they did not need to purchase burial insurance.

Burial clubs, also known as Fratres, started to spring up around Rome with the sole purpose of helping the people who belonged to the clubs pay for their loved one’s funerals. The club members met once a month and during festivals. The insured members at the clubs were expected to pay their membership fees during the meetings. New members were required to pay an entrance fee in addition to supply the group with an agreed upon amount of wine; they later shared a meal together after performing a sacrifice.

Another stipulation was that a member that had not paid their membership dues for six months were not allowed to claim burial benefits. Also, if a member were to commit suicide they would not be permitted to be buried among the other members of the club. Since suicide was looked upon in a highly negative light, they thought that if a member that committed suicide was buried with the rest of the members it would somehow make the grounds less sacred. The survivors of the members whom committed suicide were forced to forfeit their burial benefits, leaving them with nothing.

As one can see, burial insurance is not some modern concoction; rather it has deep ancient roots. In this article we discussed how the history of burial insurance traces back to ancient Rome, why the burial clubs were formed, and different rules and regulations of the clubs. Now that you are a more intelligent and more aware individual as a result of reading this article, go forth and use this knowledge to impress your friends.