Although there are occasional instances in which the chairman of the board of directors actually exercises the operating control of the company, this function is most often in the hands of the president. The president has general administrative supervision over all departments. In small companies, he may even be in active control of one or more departments.
As a general rule, the president is subordinate to the board of directors; but it is not particularly uncommon for the directors actually to be under the control of the president. Companies are often organized and built mainly through the impetus of one or two people who naturally assume control. If one of these individuals prefers to be president, he will exercise control of term life insurance rates, even though he is technically subordinate to the board of directors.
Often, in cases of domination of the company by one man, the primary qualification of a candidate for the board of directors is amenability to the wishes of the president or controlling management bloc. A secondary consideration will then usually be the prominence of the candidate and, hence, his publicity or public-relations value.
The job of the president is chiefly one of co-ordination: he must see that his staff is functioning efficiently. To do this, he organizes his staff into committees and then spends a good deal of his time in committee work. He busies himself with inter-company relations and with public relations generally. He spends time reading reports and keeping abreast of economic and legislative trends in order for the rates to be affordable life insurance.
In most insurance companies, vice-presidents exercise active supervision over departments. In a small company a vice-president may have to "double in brass" and serve as the head of more than one department. In line of authority, one of the vice-presidents acts in the absence of the president. In larger companies the functions of the vice-presidents are usually coordinated by an executive vice-president, the "vice-president in charge of vice-presidents."
Now and again, a life insurance company will be found in which the executive vice-president actually performs the functions of president, the position of presidency in that particular company at that particular time being more honorary than active. However, such an appointment is sometimes made to capitalize on the figure's organizational ability, which can be utilized effectively even if he is not trained in insurance technicalities.
In cases of joint or interlocking management, the president of one of a group of companies may also be the president of the others. Some or all of the companies in the group, however, may actually be run by executive vice-presidents- the president being at the head of one or more of them in name only.
Responsibilities delegated to a company secretary by the bylaws of the company are usually responsibility for correspondence (in the sense of the directing authority and of responsibility for official correspondence); for the issuance of life insurance policies, which are usually signed by the secretary; and for the records of meetings of the board of directors and committees. Almost all these duties are either theoretical or wholly supervisory.
Policies are actually issued by a policy issue or similar department, with the secretary's signature printed on the form; the transcript of the business of the meeting of the board of directors or of a committee is usually made by a professional stenographer.
As a result, the truly functional duties of a company secretary vary widely, ranging anywhere from active charge of a department in no way concerned with his bylaw duties to the function of general manager or even executive vice-president. Moreover, as an outgrowth of this wide variation in the active duties of a company secretary, "assistant secretaries" will be found to be numerous, especially among larger companies; and their duties vary as widely as can be imagined within one company.
The officers named so far are the executive officers common to most companies. The charter or bylaws of any given company may add one or a few more executive officers. For instance, the offices of treasurer, general counsel, actuary, or controller are often executive offices.
In addition to executive officers in a company, there are "functional officers" who are usually department heads that perform responsible functions in the operation of the company. They are not officers of the corporation and consequently do not have power to bind the company to contracts or other obligations.
Allison Ryan is a freelance marketing writer from San Diego, CA. She specializes in financial planning, business finance, and different types of affordable life insurance. To browse a variety of life insurance policies, please visit http://www.equote.com/.
