Louis D. Brandeis: “The Greatest Life Insurance Wrong”

Louis D. Brandeis’s article “The Greatest Life Insurance Wrong” was published in the Independent magazine in December 1906. In his career as a lawyer, Brandeis had come to be known as the people's attorney, representing the interests of those less well off and donating his advocacy services to public causes. When the shocking abuses in the business practices of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York precipitated widespread alarm in 1905, Brandeis worked as unpaid counsel for the New England Policy-Holders' Protective Committee. Eventually, he devised a system in which modest life insurance policies could be sold over the counter by savings banks at rates within the means of ordinary workers. “The Greatest Life Insurance Wrong” summarizes the industry abuses and lays out proposed solutions to the problem.