INSURANCE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12454, 2 February 1909, Page 4

INSURANCE.

CONGRESS OF ACTUARIES. The sixth International Congress of Actuaries will be held in Vienna next June, previous congresses having met in Brussels, Paris, London, New York and Berlin. . Mr Morris Fox, the- actuary to the Insurance Department, who was appointed by the Government to represent New Zealand at the New York Congress in 1903/ will act in a similar capacity at Vienna this year (says the "Evening Post"). He will leave for that city on' i the"'23rd of April; after the .distribution of profits to the ■policy-holders of the Insurance Department has been -completed. • Mr Fox, who 1 will be accompanied by Mrs Fox, . expects to spend, about two months'' in Great Britain, and will return towards the end of October. In' view' of the position which insurance has attained' in the system of political economy, the international institutions, whose objects are scientific research into, its groundwork and adaptation, and into its systematic development, have acquired an i importance which increases from day to 'day. At the coming Congress opin-i ions and papers will be prepared upon all points of interest, arid such opinions and papers can be in the German, English, French, or Italian languages. They will be printed in the original language, but a precis "will be attached translated into the other Congress languages. . The transactions of the Congress, will likewise be conducted in German . English, French, and Italian languages., and .taken down in each by stenographers. Festivities are being arranged by Bpe'cial committees, and delegates to the Congress will be afforded r? every opportunity of- ' becoming ; acquainted with the attractions , and' ■ beauties of Vienna and its environs/ , Subjects for discussion include: (1) The supervision of. insurance' companies from an actuarial standpoint ; (2) investments of insurance companies, with special reference to modern "developments; (3) methods of computing premiums and. and .premium reserves in national (i.e. compulsory) insurance: (4) the problem of the. mathematical risk ;' (5) the economical relations between . national insurance andj assurance by_ private (unofficial) companies ; (6) is it de r sirable to divide "under average" lives for the purpose of assurance into special . classes according to their distinguishing features, and. if so, in what way should they be classified? (7) actuarial science inits relation to economics and sociology ; (8) history of the conditions relating to the life assurance contract in various countries; (9) computation of policy values by premature cancellation of the contract (surrender values), etc. Other subjects to be dealt with will relate to national statistics^ workers' 1 compensation premiums, rates of mortality, and invalidity insurance.