There are many financial institutions in the United States which make mortgage loans for the purpose of investing their own funds. These include the life insurance companies, many of which are great institutions with resources of hundreds of millions of dollars; savings banks, which are the principal depositories for the savings of the people in some sections of the country; building and loan associations, which are organized for the purpose of encouraging thrift and home building; trust companies, both for their own funds and for trust funds in their charge; land banks and farm loan associations, both Federal and State, and, besides these, a great many charitable, educational, and other institutions. There are other corporations, many of them large, which make mortgage loans as a business, and which sell the mortgages to investors with or without a guarantee of payment, and either in whole or subdivided into bonds or certificates. Then, of course, the private investor lends his funds on real estate mortgages, dealing either directly with the borrower or through a broker or a mortgage company.