The Investments of Metropolitan Life

As a result of the expansion, near the end of the decade a Real Estate Section, with Anthony H. Creagh in charge, was created in the Home Office. Young Ecker, whose bent for business had attracted the attention of President Knapp, was promoted to be Assistant Manager of the new Section.

Mr. Ecker achieved a firsthand knowledge of real estate values through the inspection of properties on which loans were being considered. He devoted himself so intensively to his job that he could walk through New York City and point out practically every one of the 600 properties on which the company held a mortgage.

This knowledge stood him in good stead. In 1893 came the severe panic and depression which had serious repercus­sions on the investment market. In the critical period that followed, the company acquired many properties through fore­closure, and the record shows that these came to be 7 percent of the company's total assets.

Mr. Ecker at the age of 26, was faced with the task of handling the properties, many of them in Brooklyn. He applied himself to rehabilitating them, and soon the buildings were filled with tenants, were producing an income, and there was little trouble later in disposing of them satisfactorily.

As the funds available for investment continued to in­crease, the work of the Real Estate Division grew in propor­tion. This small group was faced with a multitude of tasks, including the examination of titles, the checking of the accuracy and renewal of fire insurance policies, the payment of taxes and assessments, the annual search of records for unpaid taxes, and the periodical examination of properties and their valuation in order to determine whether loans were secure.

To expedite the handling of real estate transactions, the Bond and Mortgage Division was created in the summer of 1898. Having already demonstrated his ability, when Mr. Ecker was 31, he, was chosen to be Manager of the new Division, and to take immediate charge of all loans on real estate. He soon took over a good deal of the responsibility for purchasing securities as well.

With the continued financial growth of the company and the expansion of the investment portfolio, corporate securities played an increasingly important role. By 1905, investments in bonds and stocks grew to more than half the company's total assets, which at the end of that year amounted to $151,663,477. By far the most important item in the portfolio were railroad securities, totaling more than $52,000,000 and comprising more than one third of the Companies total investments.

A sizable amount of money was also invested in governmental securities and in the bonds of public utility companies, a major part of which were street railway bonds. Of lesser importance were loans on collateral and loans to policyholders. Real estate continued to be a prominent item, although relatively less so than in the previous decade. Mortgage loans on real estate amounted to $38,000,000, and real estate owned came to $17,500,000.

It is significant that the Metropolitan had only a small percentage of its assets invested in stocks, although prior to the passage of the Armstrong legislation in 1906 the New York Insurance Law did not prohibit life insurance companies from purchasing such securities.