On the Proper Method of Loading the Premiums required for the Assurance of Sums at Death, &c

Extract

our predecessors adopted a ready and (all things considered) a sufficiently effectual method of regulating the charges to be made for granting assurances on lives. They satisfied themselves on the one hand that the mortality table adopted allowed for a much higher mortality than would probably be experienced, and on the other they assumed in their calculations a rate of interest below that which they knew would be realized on their investments. With these precautions they could rely pretty safely upon realizing a considerable profit, and this consideration not unnaturally proved sufficient for the scientific requirements of the time.