Papers and reports

There are in existence numerous charitable funds which provide financial assistance to members or their dependants in the form of either grants or annuities. It might at first sight appear doubtful whether an investigation of such funds on actuarial lines is practicable.

This paper is devoted mainly to the extension of the n-ages method of approximation for product-sums to summations in respect of two variables; some uses in valuation work of the formulae developed are indicated and illustrated arithmetically. Hitherto, apart from a special formula devised for the particular purpose of illustrating the possibilities of valuing whole-life assurances by limited payments grouped by years of entry (J.I.A. Vol. 64), the n-ages method has been confined to one variable.

It is now widely recognized that the future must see far-reaching changes in our monetary system, and that these changes must be in the direction of a conscious and planned management, as distinct from leaving the system to be regulated in a more or less automatic manner by factors which reflect and are governed by international conditions; that the monetary system should in fact be made to serve and not govern the requirements of the economic system.

I have limited this paper to the consideration of appreciation or depreciation in fixed interest-bearing securities resulting from a fall or rise in the general level of interest rates and not from any alteration in the intrinsic value of the securities, i.e. there is assumed to be no change in the probabilities that the terms of the contracts will be fulfilled.