Life insurance has been around in some form or another going all the way back to the Roman empire. Europe’s oldest surviving life insurance company, Hamburger Feuerkasse, was founded all the way back in 1676! Even here in the US, the top 35 life insurance companies are over a century old on average. It’s an amazing testament to the durability of life insurance — both as an asset and an industry.

Since life insurance has so many amazing tax benefits, it’s generally subject to stricter scrutiny and financial requirements than other business. Insurers have to run an exceptionally tight ship, which ultimately maximizes their survivability through good and bad markets.

Of course, there’s another benefit to having these rock-solid businesses around through the centuries … and that is their history. Through the centuries, these companies have insured some of the most famous businessmen, politicians, and artists the world has ever seen.

In many cases — these insurers still have the documents on hand. That can provide us with a unique glimpse into the lives of history’s great men (and women) unlike anything we’ve ever seen. One of my favorite “historical e insurance case studies” is none other than Charles Dickens.

These days, we remember Dickens as a literary legend, and the author of timeless masterpieces like A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and of course, A Christmas Carol. But during his lifetime, Dickens experienced no shortage of personal hardship.

For example; when he was still a child, his father was arrested due to inability to pay his debts. The family was shipped off to debtor’s prison, where young Charles’ was forced to take up a job working ten-hour days at a boot blacking factory. Many of the characters and themes that would dominate his later novels — especially those depicting Londoners’ crushing poverty — were derived from Dickens’ own lived experience.

Dickens eventually escaped poverty, establishing himself as a talented journalist and devloping a promising career. But the memories of his childhood clearly lingered. He was acutely aware of what could happen if and when things went wrong, and he was eager to take care of his family even in the worst-case scenario.

Thanks to the records maintained by Zurich Insurance, we now know that Charles Dickens signed a life insurance policy with Eagle Insurance on November 19, 1841. He was just 29 years old at the time, soon to set out on is first-ever trip to America. Dickens wasn’t subject to a modern blood test or health assessment like you might expect if you applied today. Instead, he was tested for ailments like consumption, dropsy, gout, fits, and rupture.

His policy was valued at £5,000, and it remained in force until his passing—when a death benefit of £6,337 7s. 1d was paid to his beneficiaries (cause of death certified as apoplexy). An accompanying document provides personal reference from Dickens close friend, actor William Charles Macready, providing unique insights into the lasting friendship shared by the two men.

The story provides a fascinating new glimpse into the life of a literary legend. But it also demonstrates just how much life insurance has evolved (in your favor) over the centuries… For example, I think it’s amazing that Dickens started off so young.

The younger you are when you sign your first whole life insurance policy, the less you’ll need to pay in premiums, and the more time your policy will ultimately have to compound and work its magic.

But oh boy, that death benefit … £5,000 in 1841 is equivalent to roughly £300,000 (a little less than $400,000). That’s not even enough to buy a home in London — let alone replace Dickens’ value as his family’s primary breadwinner.

These days, we use a metric called “Human Life Value” (HLV) to determine your policy’s ideal cash value. HLV is a measure of how much you’re likely to earn over your lifetime. To calculated HLV, we take your annual income and multiply it 15-30x.

So for example, if you’re making $100,000 a year, then you could potentially sign a policy for as much as $2-3 million. If tragedy strikes once the policy is funded, then your beneficiary will receive the cash death benefit. And if that benefit is managed correctly (yielding 3-5% on investments) it can effectively replace your $100,000 income indefinitely.

This is a crucial advantage of modern life insurance — and one that’s hard to overstate… Your HLV is a massive insurable asset. As my friend and life insurance expert Michael Isom likes to point out, your HLV is “easy to overestimate in value, and hard to underestimate,” which is a tremendous and unique advantage.

After all, you can’t insure a $20,000 car for $50,000. But if you take out a life insurance policy during your prime earning years, you can start building up a massive, tax-protected cash benefit that’s also protected from creditors and even exempt from the estate process in many cases.

And if you’re insurable for millions of dollars … and you keep your premiums paid up … then it’s nearly inevitable that you’ll also be worth millions of dollars.

Along the way, you can take advantage of your paid-up policy in all kinds of ways; borrow against it for business, use it to save on car and home loans, or even cash out a critical health rider to pay for emergency medical care. All possible thanks to the cash value in your whole life insurance, backed up by your HLV.

If you don’t get life insurance, then your HLV remains an untapped and unquantified asset — for you and your heirs (and their heirs). So much money left on the table.

If you opt for term life insurance over whole life insurance, then you’re at least introducing the possibility of your loved ones benefiting from your HLV. But you’re still playing by someone else’s rules.

Whole life insurance is the only way to take advantage of this unique asset, maximizing not just your cash value and death benefit — but also your net worth over the long run.

That way you won’t have to worry about anyone in your family ending up like Oliver Twist. (Sorry, I had to.)

Key Takeaways

• Life insurance is a centuries-old financial tool known for its durability and ability to protect wealth across generations.
• Historical policies, like Charles Dickens’ 1841 life insurance, illustrate the evolution of coverage and underscore the importance of early-insured risk protection.
• Modern life insurance leverages the Human Life Value (HLV) metric to align coverage with lifetime earning potential, often providing millions in tax-advantaged benefits.
• Whole life insurance maximizes net worth by combining cash value accumulation, tax benefits, and creditor protection, making it ideal for high-net-worth individuals.
• Life insurance policies serve multiple wealth-building functions: income replacement, liquidity for business or loans, and emergency medical funding.
• Failing to insure your HLV leaves a critical, insurable asset untapped, risking financial security for you and your heirs.
• Intentional living through strategically designed life insurance enhances continuity and long-term family financial stability.

Ready to see how this could apply to your wealth plan? Click the big yellow Clarity Call button and let’s map it out together.