Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:46:10.195Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Freedom with Publicity’ — The Actuarial Profession and United Kingdom Insurance Regulation from 1844 to 1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2011

P. M. Booth
P. M. Booth
Affiliation:
Professor of Insurance and Risk Management, Cass Business School, City University, 106 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TZ, U.K., Email: p.booth@city.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From 1870, in the United Kingdom, a generally liberal legal framework for life insurance existed which commanded wide support, particularly from the actuarial profession. Despite its apparent liberalism, however, it is likely that the regulatory framework impeded market entry, particularly of mutual companies. The liberal framework broke down in a number of incremental steps from 1946. This paper traces the development of U.K. life assurance regulation for 101 years from the mid-Victorian period, analyses contemporary reflections on the legal framework within the actuarial profession, and examines the appropriateness of the legal framework for achieving specific economic objectives for long-term insurance regulation.

Keywords

Insurance RegulationActuarial ProfessionActuarial History
Type
Papers
Information
Annals of Actuarial Science , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 115 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, W.M. (1984). Statutory regulation of long-term business, Life assurance monograph, Institute of Actuaries, London U.K.Google Scholar
Alborn, T.L. (1994). A calculating profession: Victorian actuaries among the statisticians. Science in Context, 7(3), 433–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Akerlof, G.A. (1970). The market for ‘lemons’: quality, uncertainty and the market mechanism The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3), 488–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrand, A.R. (1911). The Assurance Companies Act 1909. Some explanatory notes on such portions of the Act as relate to the business of life assurance. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 45, 257–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bateman, R.A. (1927). Legal notes. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 58, 312–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besant, A.D. (1925a). Opening Address by the President. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 56, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besant, A.D. (1925b). The Departmental Committee on the Insurance Companies Act 1909. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 56, 241–242.Google Scholar
Board of Trade (1927). Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire and report what amendments are desirable in the Assurance Companies Act, 1909.Google Scholar
Cochrane, J.H. (1995). Time consistent health insurance. Journal of Political Economy, 103(3), 445–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, N.E. & Ogborn, M.E. (1952). The practice of life assurance. Cambridge University Press U.K.Google Scholar
Collins, F.L. (1925). Winding up a life assurance company under the provisions of Section 17 of the Assurance Companies Act 1909. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 56, 153–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daykin, C.D. (1992). The developing role of the Government Actuary's Department in the supervision of insurance. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 119, 313–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deuchar, D. (1886). The Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870, inaugural address to the Actuarial Society of Edinburgh, Session 1878–79. Transactions of the Actuarial Society of Edinburgh, 3–27.Google Scholar
Deuchar, D. (1891). The progress of life assurance business in the United Kingdom during the last fifty years. Transactions of the Actuarial Society of Edinburgh, 2, 137–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finsinger, J., Hammond, E. & Tapp, J. (1985). Insurance: competition or regulation? Institute for Fiscal Studies, London U.K.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, J.V.V., Barrand, A.R. & Hunt, C.A. (1914). Bunyon on the law of life assurance, fifth edition. Charles & Edwin Layton, London U.K.Google Scholar
Hendel, I. & Lizzeri, A. (2003). The role of commitment in dynamic contracts: evidence from life insurance. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 299–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendriks, F. (1854). A review of some recommendations of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Assurance Associations. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 4, 324–348.Google Scholar
Higham, C. (1901). Events and wants: a Presidential Address (delivered 26 November 1900). Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 35, 425–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Homans, S. (1897). On government regulation of life insurance regulation in the United States of America. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 33, 320–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopf, F. (1870). Suggestions for legislation to regulate the calculation and investment of the reserve in life assurance companies. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 15, 270–292.Google Scholar
King, G. (1892). On legislation affecting life assurance companies, more especially with reference to the Life Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 to 1872, and their amendment. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 29, 481–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, A. (1929). Opening Address by the President (delivered 29 October 1928). Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 60, 4–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macgillivray, E.J. & Browne, D. (1937). Macgillivray on insurance law. Sweet & Maxwell, London U.K.Google Scholar
Morrison, A. (2004). Life assurance: regulation as contract enforcement. Economic Affairs, 24(4), 47–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myddelton, D.R. (2004). Unshackling accountants. Hobart Paper 149, Institute of Economic Affairs, London U.K.Google Scholar
Nicoll, J. (1898). The relation of the actuarial profession to the state. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 34, 158–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D.C. (1954). Life insurance and investment banking at the time of the Armstrong Investigation of 1905–1906. Journal of Economic History, 14(3), 209–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogborn, M.E. (1962). Equitable Assurances: the story of life assurance in the experience of the Equitable Life Assurance Society 1762–1962. George Allen and Unwin, London U.K.Google Scholar
Plantin, G. & Rochet, J.-C. (2007). When insurers go bust: an economic analysis of the role and design of prudential regulation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, U.S.A.Google Scholar
Ransom, R.L. & Sutch, R. (1987). Tontine insurance and the Armstrong investigation: a case of stifled innovation, 1868–1905. Journal of Economic History, 47(2), 370–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raynes, H.E. (1948). A history of British insurance. Pitman, London U.K.Google Scholar
Ryan, G.H. (1911). Opening address by the President. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 45, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, P. (2002). Towards the ‘cult of the equity’? Insurance companies and the interwar capital market. Economic History Review, 40(1), 78–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Select Committee (1853). Report from the Select Committee on Assurance Associations, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix, and index.Google Scholar
Shepherd, B.E. (1948). Insurance supervision in the United States. Transactions of the Centenary Assembly of the Institute of Actuaries, 3, 144–159, Institute of Actuaries, London U.K.Google Scholar
Sprague, T.B. (1871). On legislation as to life insurance and life insurance companies. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 16, 77–98.Google Scholar
Sprague, T.B. (1874). On the causes of insolvency in life insurance companies, and the best means of detecting, exposing, and preventing it. Paper presented to the Belfast Meeting of the British Association, Section F (Economic Science and Statistics), 1874, reprinted in Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 20, 291–297.Google Scholar
Sprague, T.B. (1886). Opening Address by the President. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 25, 65–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teece, R. (1885). State supervision of insurance. Paper presented to the Insurance Institute of New South Wales and reproduced in abstract in Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 25, 350–365.Google Scholar
Tucker, R. (1873). Remarks by the President of the Institute of Actuaries, minutes of the twenty-fifth Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Actuaries. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 17, 452–455.Google Scholar
Walford, C. (1867). The insurance guide and handbook, second edition.Google Scholar
Walford, C. (1881). The position of the insurance press in relation to insurance offices and insurance interests. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 23, 18–28.Google Scholar
Walford, C. (1887). History of life insurance in the United Kingdom, parts 6 and 7. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 26, 436–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanjani, G. (2005). Regulation, capital, and the evolution of organizational form in U.S. life insurance. Mimeo, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S.Google Scholar