Related Research Articles
The Independent Order of Foresters, operating as Foresters Financial, is a fraternal benefit society headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that provides life insurance and other financial solutions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As of 2022, Louis Gagnon has served as the company's president and CEO.
Knights of the Maccabees was a fraternal organization formed in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada. Most active in the U.S. state of Michigan, the group's fraternal aspects took a backseat to providing low-cost insurance to members. In the society's early years it also provided other final-expense related benefits such as society cemeteries.
A friendly society is a mutual association for the purposes of insurance, pensions, savings or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose. Before modern insurance and the welfare state, friendly societies provided financial and social services to individuals, often according to their religious, political, or trade affiliations. These societies are still widespread in many parts of the developing world, where they are referred to as ROSCAs, ASCAs, burial societies, chit funds, etc.
The Independent Order of Rechabites (IOR), also known as the Sons and Daughters of Rechab, is a fraternal organisation and friendly society founded in England in 1835 as part of the wider temperance movement to promote total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. The Order has been active in Australia from 1843, promoting temperance and as a benefit society. A branch was established in the United States in 1842, and also flourished for a time. In the United Kingdom, the Order trades under the name of Healthy Investment, being well connected in upper society and involved in financial matters; there it gradually transformed into a financial institution which promotes teetotalism.
A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid organization is a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs or may arise ad hoc to meet the unique needs of a particular time and place.
A fraternal order is a voluntary membership group organised as an order, with an initiation ritual and traits alluding to religious, chivalric or pseudo-chivalric orders, guilds, or secret societies. Fraternal orders typically have secular purposes, serving as social clubs, cultural organizations and providing a form of social welfare through reciprocal aid or charitable work. Many friendly societies, benefit societies and mutual organisations take the form of a fraternal order.
The Foresters Friendly Society is a British friendly society which was formed in 1834 as the Ancient Order of Foresters. As of 31 December 2016, the society had approximately 75,000 members. Its head office is located in Southampton, England.
Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) is an American fraternal benefit society in the United States, which sells various investments and insurance products, with membership over 750,000 as of 2017. Total assets reached US$17.5 Billion billion in 2022, making it one of the largest such organization by assets. Though it shares the same founder, it is not affiliated financially in any way with another, similarly-styled fraternal benefit society, WoodmenLife, and despite the name "Modern" is actually older than its counterpart.
A fraternity or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western concept developed in the Christian context, notably with the religious orders in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. The concept was eventually further extended with medieval confraternities and guilds. In the early modern era, these were followed by fraternal orders such as Freemasons, the Rosicrucian Society of England, and Odd Fellows, along with gentlemen's clubs, student fraternities, and fraternal service organizations. Members are occasionally referred to as a brother or – usually in a religious context – frater or friar.
Assured Life Association, formerly Woodmen of the World and/or Assured Life Association, having officially changed its name to on January 1, 2015, is a fraternal benefit society based in Denver, Colorado, whose beginnings can be traced to the same founder as Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World in 1890. Today, Assured Life Association is not affiliated with either organization. Aside from offering insurance benefits the organization is a non-profit Life Insurer organized to give back revenues to its member customers through direct benefits such as college scholarships and summer camp grants for youth and through discounts on other products and services. The Society also has a member-directed matching charitable giving program. Four national community service projects are promoted among Society member customers each year.
The American Fraternal Alliance (AFA) is an umbrella group of fraternal orders in the United States. It was founded as the National Fraternal Congress of America in 1913, in Chicago, Illinois. It adopted its current name in 2011.
United Commercial Travellers or UCT is a non-profit organization that supports communities and causes across the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and Grandview Heights.
The Golden Age of Fraternalism is a term referring to a period when membership in the fraternal societies in the United States grew at a very rapid pace in the latter third of the 19th century and continuing into the first part of the 20th. At its peak, it was suggested that as much as 40% of the adult male population held membership in at least one fraternal order.
Columbian Mutual Life Assurance Society was an American fraternal benefit order. It was originally organized in 1903, under the laws of Georgia, as "Eminent Household of Columbian Woodmen" (sometimes referred to as "Columbian Woodmen of Georgia" or simply, "Columbian Woodmen". When this organization merged with the "Columbia Woodmen of Mississippi" in 1921, the name of the merged institutions was changed to "Columbian Mutual Life Assurance Society". In 1922, its home office moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it erected a 22-story office building, known as Columbian Mutual Tower. The Society paid sick and death benefits and admitted both men and women. In 1924, it had 831 subordinate lodges with a benefit membership of 24,039.