Insurance and fraternal temperance societies

The story about the Sons of  Temperance dropping its insurance business is a reminder that part of the appeal of the Good Templars (founded a few years after the Sons) was a lack of insurance.  This made the new organization willing to admit the elderly and others who were poor health risks.  The Good Templars also argued that a material incentive to join a temperance organization was wrong in principle.  Despite this, various regional Good Templar societies toyed with offering insurance.  In the nineteenth century a majority of fraternal societies, temperance and general, provided insurance, not always on a sound financial basis that guaranteed benefits to  members when they needed them.