A notable symbol of the restoration of normal working in life insurance was the holding in London, in June 1927, of the eighth International Congress of Actuaries, the first held since 1912.
These congresses had previously been held at intervals of three years. The papers read on this occasion were therefore of great interest and value, embodying, as they did, the experience of all the leading countries of the world over• a period of unprecedented changes.
the Institute of Actuaries Textbook; C. J. Bunyon, The Law of Life Assurance (4th ed., 1904) ; E. J. Mac Gillivray, Insurance Law (1912) ; A. F. Jack, Introduction to the History of Life Assurance (1912) ; T. D. Lister, Medical Examina tion for Life Insurance ; R. C. Simmonds and J. H. Matthews, Insurance Guide and Handbook (1922) ; S. G. Warner, "The Effect on British Life Assurance of the European War (1914-1918)," War and Insurance (London, Oxford and New Haven, 1927). See also the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, the Transactions of the Faculty of Actuaries (the Scottish body), the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries Students Society, the Transactions of the Actuarial Society of America, the Journal of the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Transactions of the Assurance Medical Society, in which the technical literature of the subject is mostly contained. Useful year books are, the Post Magazine Almanack, the Insurance Blue Book and Guide, Bourne's Insurance Directory, and the Assekuranz Jahrbuch (Vienna and Leipzig) which gives a survey of insurance in the principal countries of the world. (C. C. N.) The first American companies were stock companies which have since given up the insurance and annuity business and have de voted their attention exclusively to banking or to execution of trusts—the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities, organized 1809, New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, 183o (renamed Bank of New York and Trust Company, 1922) and Girard Insurance, Annuity and Trust Com pany, 1836. The first mutual company was the Mutual Life In surance Company of New York which received a charter April 1842 and began business on Feb. 1, 1843 ; its first premium rates
were based on the Carlisle and Northampton Tables and were those used previously by the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company. The New England Mutual, though chartered as early as 1835, did not begin the issuance of policies until Dec. The Nautilus Insurance Company was chartered 1841 as a joint stock company, was changed to mutual 1843, began business 1845 and was renamed New York Life Insurance Company Other early companies were the Mutual Benefit, 1845 and Con necticut Mutual, Penn Mutual and State Mutual, all Growth and Institutions.—There are now (1928) over 300 companies with assets, as of Dec. 31, 1927, of over $15,000,000,000 and insurance in force of over $90,000,000,000; in 1927 the pre mium income was nearly $3,000,000,000 and the new insurance issued about $19,000,000,000. All but about 5o are stock com panies but the list of mutual companies includes almost all the very large companies so that about or over two thirds of the total insurance, is carried by these mutual organiza tions. In addition to the regular stock and mutual companies are fraternal associations, primarily social or fraternal in character, with about $10,000,000,000 in force and assessment associations and stipulated premium companies with relatively small amounts.