The President of the Institute of Actuaries was in the Chair. The opener prefaced his formal remarks as follows:

I would first of all like to say how pleased and honoured I feel to have been asked once again to take a part in the proceedings of this Society, particularly as this must be regarded as a special occasion since we are honoured by the presence in the chair of you, Sir, the President of the Institute, and also because this meeting is in the nature of an experiment.

It may be within your recollection, Sir, that on the first occasion, some thirty years ago, when I was asked to take part it was also an experiment. We met at the Old Bell and my part was in what has come to be known as Heath's play. It was therefore not so much a surprise to me, as it might have been to some, when three or four months ago the Chairman of the Society telephoned me and asked me to take part in another experiment, mentioning a symposium. Being one of those who dodged compulsory Greek in my undergraduate days I temporized. I consulted a Pocket Oxford Dictionary and found that my memory had not let me down: ‘symposium = a Greek drinking party’. Pursuing the matter further, I consulted the larger edition: ‘symposium = a drinking party, a convivial meeting for drinking and conversation’, and the only example it gives of the use of the word, ‘our symposium at the King's Head broke up, 1787’. This seemed conclusive and, remembering the symposia I had enjoyed with Alan Gardner in the past, I agreed to come along. I was a little disturbed when I received the notice of meeting which mentions a review, but I concluded this was just a printer's error for revue, although I thought the title unusual. My doubts were quite set at rest on Monday when you yourself announced in this Hall that the Society would meet tonight for a symposium.

Part of the formal business of the meeting of the Congress of Actuaries consisted in the modification of the rules of the Permanent Committee to provide for the formation of sections concerned with the study of special subjects. The first of such sections, to be known as ASTIN and concerned with the application of modern mathematical and statistical methods to non-life insurance, was also formed during the Congress. Dr Paul Johansen of Copenhagen, a corresponding member of the Institute, was elected Chairman of ASTIN and R. E. Beard of London was elected Secretary.

Section IVa, Analytical Expressions of the Risks involved in General Insurance, was of great interest to those actuaries interested in ASTIN, and the following notes have been prepared on the sixteen papers submitted in an endeavour to indicate the type of problem being considered by the new section of the Permanent Committee.

This paper attempts to set out some of the points of detail in the administration of a privately administered pension fund based on the practical experience of a large fund. The solutions offered to the problems arising have necessarily been reached in the context of a particular fund and do not claim to be the only, or even the best, answers for other funds; indeed the very problems may be different in other funds, particularly in smaller ones.

It seems essential, therefore, to describe the main features of the fund in question.

The subject of this paper and its companion paper dealing with privately administered schemes has received only scant attention in our discussions, although it is of great importance to employers who have pension schemes. It is hoped to promote a discussion on the administrative problems which arise from time to time in schemes and to that end those which have arisen in the assured schemes described in this paper are set out later.

When the question of the future constitution of the female population of this country as regards marital status was studied about eight years ago, the conclusion was reached (J.S.S.10, 24) that ‘a considerable fall in the number of marriages, to be followed by a consequential fall in the number of births, is almost inevitable during the next few years’. This conclusion was based on the fact that the number of births declined by 20% during the 1920's and this decline was likely to be reflected in the number of marriages about 20 to 25 years later.

In fact, marriages in England and Wales, which averaged about 350,000 a year during 1941–45, rose to 391,000 a year during 1947–49 (which presumably included a number of ‘demobilization’ marriages) and fell only to 356,000 on average during 1950–52, and 348,000 a year during 1953–55, whilst in 1956, the latest year for which figures are available, the marriages numbered 353,000.

This article attempts to develop a practical system for dealing with extra-risks whilst retaining consistency in the terms offered to proposers. The extra premiums derived vary according to the view taken of the incidence of the extra-risk, and tables are produced to enable the underwriter to deduce quickly the required special terms.

W. Perks' paper, ‘The Treatment of Sub-Standard Lives in Practice’ (J.I.A.78, 205), describes a system whereby the special terms are fixed according to uniform percentage increases in mortality throughout the term. This approach does not make a broad assessment of the incidence of the extra-risk. The present writer feels that some allowance for incidence should be made, and the process that follows attempts to adhere to the narrow theoretical path. The scope of this article does not include the interesting fields of underwriting practice and experience which were admirably discussed in W. Perks' paper.