Some Observations on the Life Assurance Clauses of the “Married Women's Property Acts”, 1870 and 1882

Abstract

The profession of an Actuary, though mainly concerned with the science of finance as applied to transactions dependent upon the duration of human life, involves the consideration, more or less minute, of many other subjects not immediately connected with scientific analysis and computations. There is a practical side to our profession which has, perhaps, been sometimes in danger of being overlooked, and it has been hinted, if not openly stated, that the Institute too exclusively concerns itself with the mathematical aspect of life assurance to the neglect of other matters which might very properly engage its attention. Among the most obvious of such subjects are those which deal with questions of law, the forms of the contracts between assurants and assurers, and the numerous questions which arise as to their interpretation and execution. Such questions arise daily in our official practice, but have seldom formed the subject of our deliberations as an Institute. The great interest, however, which was excited last session by Mr. C. D. Higham's paper on the Assignment of Life Policies, naturally suggested that papers on other legal questions would be welcomed by the Institute; and it may be incidentally remarked that a subject of a legal character is peculiarly appropriate to the occasion of what is practically our first ordinary meeting in this ancient hall, formerly the seat of one of the Inns of Chancery.