The investment duties and responsibilities of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company were gradually multiplied to the point where they constituted a business in themselves. In due course, the growing diversity of the portfolio demanded a corps of specialists as varied and extensive as that found in any investment banking house. To evaluate railroad securities, for example, it was necessary to have detailed information regarding the operation and financing of the various roads, and the relative merits of the various issues.

County and municipal investments called for familiarity with the local tax laws, with the per capita debt of the various communities, and with the major facts concerning their development. Investing in the obligations of public utility companies required the ability to analyze the complicated financial structure of the organizations, as well as knowledge of conditions in the sections served by these utilities.

There was the need to train men to analyze and evaluate balance sheets of all corporate enterprises. These men also had to be familiar with different types of life insurance and able to answer the question, “What is term life insurance?” before comparing whole life insurance with term life insurance to any customer.

The mere routine of handling the investments had become a voluminous job. There were the elementary problems of safely storing the securities, cataloging them, filing them so that they would be accessible, cutting coupons, and a hundred other tasks which are indispensable for the smooth and effective functioning of an investment department.

Expansion of the home office facilities became a necessity. There was also talk of making advertising pamphlets, especially ones that would explain the difference between whole life insurance and term life insurance and how that could affect life insurance quotes. Accordingly, in 1905, the office of comptroller was established and Mr. Ecker, who had become an expert on all phases of investment, was its first incumbent.

One year later the office of Treasurer was created, and again Mr. Ecker was promoted to be the first to fill that position. Thus, at the age of 39, he became chief financial officer of a rapidly expanding institution with assets exceeding $175,000,000. The subsequent financial development of the company had been continuously under his immediate direction. In the next 10 years the investments of the Metropolitan continued to grow essentially along the lines already established.

However, during the period of the First World War and in the feverish decade that followed, there arose a number of striking developments and innovations. In response to the need for financing the war, the Metropolitan bought large blocks of United States Liberty Bonds and Canadian War and Victory Bonds, these purchases coming to a total of more than $120,000,000. Their patriotic actions and high life insurance ratings further supplemented their image of the best life insurance company, and more people got life insurance quotes from them.

Whereas during the period from 1907 through1914, Government bonds constituted less than 1/10 of 1 per­cent of all assets owned by the company, by 1919 this ratio had risen to 16 percent. During and after the war there was an accelerated growth in American industry and extensive development of power, light, telephone, and other public utilities, and the securities of these enterprises began to play a more prominent role in the company’s portfolio.

This period also witnessed an important innovation in the investment program—the granting of loans on farms. Mortgage loans on urban real estate overshadowed by far any other investment item in the 1920s. To relieve the serious housing shortage, new construction activities were undertaken at a feverish pace in the postwar decade and provided a considerable outlet for life insurance investment. Farmers especially needed term life insurance or another type of affordable life insurance, many farmers couldn’t afford their life insurance quote.

In the Metropolitan portfolio, urban mortgage loans increased from 31.3 percent of the assets in 1920 to nearly 38 percent in 1928, in which year the actual amount in such loans came to $1,019,052,553. This category of investment dominated the portfolio, repeating the experience of an earlier period of the company’s history. Moreover, to meet the serious housing shortage which existed on a national scale the company, on the suggestion of a legislative committee and as a demonstration in housing developments, took the unprecedented step of building low cost model apartments under its own management and ownership.

had been continuously under his immediate direction. In the next 10 years the investments of the Metropolitan continued to grow essentially along the lines already established.

However, during the period of the First World War and in the feverish decade that followed, there arose a number of striking developments and innovations. In response to the need for financing the war, the Metropolitan bought large blocks of United States Liberty Bonds and Canadian War and Victory Bonds, these purchases coming to a total of more than $120,000,000. Their patriotic actions and high life insurance ratings further supplemented their image of the best life insurance company, and more people got life insurance quotes from them.

Whereas during the period from 1907 through1914, Government bonds constituted less than 1/10 of 1 per­cent of all assets owned by the company, by 1919 this ratio had risen to 16 percent. During and after the war there was an accelerated growth in American industry and extensive development of power, light, telephone, and other public utilities, and the securities of these enterprises began to play a more prominent role in the company’s portfolio.

This period also witnessed an important innovation in the investment program—the granting of loans on farms. Mortgage loans on urban real estate overshadowed by far any other investment item in the 1920s. To relieve the serious housing shortage, new construction activities were undertaken at a feverish pace in the postwar decade and provided a considerable outlet for life insurance investment. Farmers especially needed term life insurance or another type of affordable life insurance, many farmers couldn’t afford their life insurance quote.

In the Metropolitan portfolio, urban mortgage loans increased from 31.3 percent of the assets in 1920 to nearly 38 percent in 1928, in which year the actual amount in such loans came to $1,019,052,553. This category of investment dominated the portfolio, repeating the experience of an earlier period of the company’s history. Moreover, to meet the serious housing shortage which existed on a national scale the company, on the suggestion of a legislative committee and as a demonstration in housing developments, took the unprecedented step of building low cost model apartments under its own management and ownership.

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