Video documentary about history of Sacred Assurance.
Sacred assurance started in 1831 when Ethelbert Edgar began a funeral home business in an area that would later become Ellijay, Georgia. Business was booming during the first five years of operation, taking advantage of the constant defeats as early settlers experienced in squeezing cow utters attempted to out maneuver trained warriors of the Cherokee nation. The settlers had successfully got the Cherokee to sign a deal, trading the land for a jar of home-made sweet tea and a 10% off coupon to Bungalow Bill’s Big Boy emporium and day spa. The settlers had successfully gained the deal by dressing up as a Cherokee chief and signing the deal on their behalf, unbeknownst to the native nation. It caught the natives by surprise, but the legal documents held up in the United States Supreme Court, and citizens of Cherokee were forced to move to the suburbs of Oklahoma until further notice.
As business began to grow for Ethelbert, people jealous of the Sacred Assurance funeral home’s success began opening competing businesses, causing a saturation in the casualties market. Soon competition for corpses became so embattled that funeral home directors would go around spreading rumors about people in hopes of increasing business. This tactic worked so well, that Ellijay was nearly depopulated within two years.
Ethelbert, desperate and searching for answers on how he could save his faltering business, turned to God. As he sat in his pew, contemplating in prayer, the choir began singing a four part rendition of “My faith looks up to thee” while a basket was passed around for tithes and offerings. It was then that Ethelbert’s prayers were answered as he realized how he could save his business and become successful again. He realize people would give money for things they won’t receive until they are dead. It was then that the concept of life insurance policies was born.
At first the policies covered funeral expenses for services provided by the Sacred Assurance funeral home. To ensure the exorbitant rates for the policies was justified, Ethelbert raised rates at the funeral home to a financial level that was unreachable without some sort of dead body lay away program. He also offered a payout to widows upon the death of the policy holder, in which they would receive two chickens, a pot roast, and 3 scratch off tickets potentially worth $300,000 each, which was a lot of money back then.
The life insurance policies were an overnight sensation.
As word spread about Ethelbert’s revolutionary idea, he began offering insurance policies covering all sorts of things.
|1853 commercial for party insurance.|
Sacred Assurance’s business model had an added benefit, as many policy holders were unable to verify claims, having been dead and all, leaving many policies unable to be paid out. This created a windfall gain for Ethelbert, since these technicalities allowed Sacred Assurance to keep all the money without having to do anything for it.
In 1863, as the civil war waged across the south, Ethelbert converted one of his manor houses into a hospital for wounded confederate soldiers. After the war ended, no one wanted to buy a house that had been used as a civil war hospital for fear of it being haunted, so Ethelbert decided to leave it as is, and the first Sacred Assurance hospital was officially established. Sacred Assurance hospital continued to grow, and by 1963 had developed into a successful franchise of hospitals, nursing homes, and even some health care facilities, while still offering the same quality of services and medical advancements as it did when it first started one hundred and fifty years ago.
It was on the night of April 15th 1878 at the age of 75 the world lost Ethelbert Edgar, Sacred Assurance’s founder, to what is believed to be a ruptured spleen. Ethelbert’s last words were “no, God no, please don’t take me to one of my own hospitals. Anywhere but there, I beg you.”
After Ethelbert’s death, the company was then given to his two sons, Ephram and Euclid Edgar. Ephrem handled the operations of the hospitals and nursing homes, while Euclid handled the insurance policies.
The great depression created a lot of strain on Sacred Assurance, as policies began lapsing and hospital stays were unaffordable. The Edgar brothers were forced to resort to only eating a 5 course meal instead of their typical 8. To position the company though this time, Euclid made a decision to consolidate all financial assets of the company and began purchasing real-estate that had been foreclosed from unfortunate families that were devastated by the great depression.
Euclid business acumen proved successful, not only saving the company but creating what would later become Sacred Assurance financial, offering mortgages, reverse mortgages, reverse reverse mortgages, and also double dip turn and trip put your thing down flip it and reverse mortgages.
Unfortunately, Euclid would not see the success his efforts would bring. In 1936 both he and his brother Ephrem died tragically in an accident when the breaks on their Cadillac failed and they collided with a fertilizer truck.
The company once again changed hands, this time to the only living heir, the brother’s 3rd cousin Ehrlich Von Edgar III of Germany.
In 1945 Sacred Assurance acquired the assets of German pharmaceutical company Schmerzen & Leiden.
Today Sacred Assurance is the world’s largest corporation for taking advance of people’s desperation. From the sick, elderly, or homeless, we find ways to maximize out profits to continue to be a company you know and have heard of.