None for the Road

Of all the U.S. automobile-insurance companies, probably the most exclusive is Preferred Risk Mutual of Des Moines. It sells policies only to teetotalers. Before an applicant is approved he must first sign a pledge stating: "I do not use alcoholic beverages and will not do so for the term of this policy," and then undergo a special check in his community.

In return, the Preferred Risk policyholder gets standard protection at rates 20% to 42% lower* than those of most other companies. (The lowest rate applies to those who have not had an accident in five years.) Preferred Risk's slogan: "If you don't drink, why help pay for the accidents of those who do?"

Preferred Risk has enjoyed such prosperity since it was founded nine years ago that it is now ready to quit its improvised headquarters in two rented houses for a $350,000 air-conditioned building on Des Moines' Grand Avenue. Its current assets are $4,200,000, up 24% over last year, and its estimated 1955 premium income is up to $7,000,000, 50% over 1954. It has seven branch offices and 1,250 salesmen. All the salesmen are drys and most are nonsmokers. Sales meetings are held in churches, and the company gets an evangelistic fervor into its selling that makes it seem more of a crusade than a commercial operation.

Preferred Risk was founded with $10,000 apiece from William Norton Plymat 43, a Minnesota dry leader and nonsmoker; the Rev. Sam Morris, 55, a Texas Baptist minister, and Jules Jackson Mallon, 41, a Manhattan lawyer. The three ended up in top posts--Morris as president, Plymat as treasurer, Mallon as secretary--but counted only 250 lonely pol-cyholders their first year. They now have 120,000 policyholders, of all faiths, in 47 states, including such well-known drys as ex-Record Miler Glenn Cunningham and the University of Illinois' Physiologist Dr. Andrew Ivy.

The firm will take reformed alcoholics who have been on the wagon for three years and are vouched for by teetotaling friends. So far none of the reformed drinkers has backslid. There is always the danger that a policyholder will sneak a drink and get into an accident. But Treasurer Plymat figures that this has occurred no more than half a dozen times. When it happens, the company pays the liability claim and sorrowfully cancels the policy.

* A 35-year-old Chicago pleasure driver of a 954 four-door Bel Air Chevrolet pays $111 for Preferred Risk policy (including comprehen-we coverage, a $50 deductible clause, a maximum $20,000 per accident for bodily injury and 15,000 for property damage), as against $141.20 or the standard policy in most companies.

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