E.g., Viviana Zelizer contrasted the popularity of life insurance and trust business in 19th-century America, arguing that public apprehension of the former as a hazardous enterprise stymied its growth: "The charters of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York Life, and Girard companies gave them the power to do trust business, and their trust departments flourished while life insurance foundered. It was an unexpected development, for these companies had anticipated doing most of their business with life insurance. The Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company started its life insurance and trust business in 1818. In 1823, it collected $696 worth of life insurance, while its trust business yielded almost $70,000. In 1827, it issued only 35 life policies, but almost 304 annuities and endowments in trust. By 1830, the trust business of the company amounted to almost $5 million"

XREF: Counterintuitive pattern in consumer adoption of financial products — connects to how technological or economic trust gaps shape adoption curves, relevant to innovation diffusion literature.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 149