Life Offices and Trust Funds

Extract

The growth and development of life assurance has formed the subject of many papers read by Presidents and other distinguished members of the Faculty and of the Institute of Actuaries, who have traced in their writings its progress from very feeble beginnings to the position of importance it now occupies in the public mind, and have shown how a great system based upon large experience has evolved by degrees from the arbitrary methods of earlier days. The life assurance funds of the companies having their head offices in Great Britain and Ireland, according to the returns published by the Board of Trade last year, now exceed £255,000,000, their annual premium income £22,400,000, and the sums assured on their books £660,000,000—figures which demonstrate in a practical and conclusive way the immense confidence with which these institutions are regarded, especially when it is remembered that the contracts, the fulfilment of which is relied upon, are in most cases either lifelong or maturing only after many years. Even prior to the passing of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870, the hold that the companies had obtained upon public esteem was by no means insignificant, as life assurance funds of £87,000,000 and a premium income of over £9,000,000 testify; but without the publicity which the returns prescribed by the Act have secured, it would have been much more difficult, if not altogether impossible, to put forward the appeal to have the contracts of life offices admitted as trustee investments which it is the object of this paper to initiate. The advantages that have accrued from the Act are, I believe, recognised by all insurance men, and there is no occasion to enlarge upon them here, beyond the simple statement that the security afforded by the contract of an insurance company has been greatly enhanced thereby, and that the means of discrimination essential for the present purpose have been adequately supplied through its provisions.