Series 3: Savings Bank Life Insurance (I), 1905-1906, 1929-1938

Called the father of Savings Bank Life Insurance, Justice Brandeis continued his interest in this venture while a member of the Supreme Court. Retained by a citizen's group in 1905 to be counsel for the New England Policy-Holders' Protective Committee, Brandeis's investigations led him to develop a plan by which savings banks could issue life insurance, which he framed into a bill and piloted through the Massachusetts legislature.

The first folder of this series includes copies of diary entries and letters from the 1905-1906 years, as well as other documentation of Brandeis's views on his plan. The remainder of the 11 boxes in Series 3 pertains to the 1923-1938 period and contains material received by Justice Brandeis in the form of correspondence, monthly financial reports, and weekly progress reports from two groups, the Massachusetts Savings Bank Insurance League, an informational group, and the Savings Bank Life Insurance Commission, that administered the plan.

Reel 54 Savings Bank Insurance 1905-1906, 1917, 1924-1935

Series 3, Savings Bank Life Insurance (I) begins on this reel with duplicate copies of diary entries and letters for 1905 and 1906, documenting Brandeis's early activity in this field. Financial statements, beginning in 1917, of the Massachusetts Savings Insurance League and reports from Miss Colburn of the League staff, and from Richard B. Harding, Secretary to the Committee on Savings Bank Life Insurance of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, on his progress in obtaining new participants in the program are also found here. (Boxes I 1, 2-1/2)

Reel 55 Savings Bank Insurance 1923-1924, 1930-1935

Reel 55 begins with copies of financial statements depicting sources of new Saving Bank Life Insurance business in Massachusetts, plus quarterly summaries. Incoming correspondence and reports from Alice F. Grady, until her death in 1934, Lelia E. Colburn, Richard B. Harding, Judd Dewey, Lincoln Filene and W. L. Stoddard, that kept Brandeis informed of issues facing the Savings Bank Insurance industry, are also found. The reel ends with correspondence concerning attempts, in 1935, to amend the original legislative act. (Boxes I 2-3, 3, 4, 5-1a)

Reel 56 Savings Bank Insurance 1935-1936

Correspondence and reports to Brandeis from Lelia Colburn, Clyde S. Casady, and Judd Dewey of the Massachusetts Savings Bank Life Insurance Commission, for the years 1935 and 1936 are found on reel 56. This correspondence concerns sources of new business, insurance written and canceled, and office problems and procedures. Also on this reel is correspondence from the Massachusetts Savings Bank Insurance League and its executive secretary Arthur W. Sampson and from William Leavitt Stoddard writing for Lincoln Filene, president of the League, discussing proposals to publicize the Savings Bank Insurance business. (Boxes I 5-1b/3, 6)

Reel 57 Savings Bank Insurance 1935-1937

Reel 57 begins with 1936 general correspondence that discusses publications on Savings Bank Life Insurance in Massachusetts and the possibility of adopting it in other states. Correspondents include Paul Kellogg of The Survey, Bernard Flexner, Irving Dilliard of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Julian W. Mack, Sidney E. Wolff, and William Ingersoll. Also on this reel are copies of monthly reports for the 1935-1937 Massachusetts Savings Bank insurance program; reports from Richard B. Harding of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts on progress toward expansion of the insurance plan; incoming correspondence from Judd Dewey and Lelia Colburn on Commission problems; and from the Savings Bank Insurance League concerning their informational programs. (Boxes I 7, 8, 9-1a/1c)

Reel 58 Savings Bank Insurance 1937-1938

Reel 58 includes general correspondence, monthly financial statements and reports from Richard B. Harding of Associated Industries for 1937 and 1938. These letters kept Brandeis abreast of the progress of the New York State Savings Bank Life Insurance legislation, modeled after the Massachusetts plan, and correspondents include Jack and Susan Brandeis Gilbert, Josephine Goldmark, Sidney E. Wolff, Charles Goldmark, Meyer Bloomfield, Julian W. Mack, Bernard Flexner and New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman. Also on this reel is Commission and Savings Bank Insurance League correspondence and reports to Brandeis in 1938. (Boxes I 9-1d/3, 10, 11)