The complete role of the life reassurer in the U.K. is not well known. Many will be aware of the involvement of the reassurer in the handling of very large risks or impaired lives, but relatively few may have experience of the other areas in which a reassurer operates. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the extent of the reassurer's services in the U.K.

Very few papers appear to have been written on reassurance for either the Students Society or the Institute, there having been two papers to the Students Society, one by A. J. Steeds in 1953 (J.S.S. XII, part 3) and another by I. C. Smart in 1970, and the most recent paper submitted to the Institute by G. T. Foster, in 1946 (J.I.A. LXXII).

Reassurance began in the early days of life assurance development, by the simple exchange of business between two life offices. The last fifty years have seen the emergence of a small number of life offices known as professional reassurers; life offices whose sole purpose is the acceptance of reassurance. This specialization has produced an increasing dependence by the life offices on the professional reassurer for their reassurance needs.