Such contractual annuities as have been de scribed are more frequent in Europe than in the United States. In Europe. the earliest public debts were in the form of life annuities. The ill success of these ventures was one of the earliest stimulants to a scientific study of the laws of mortality. In European countries the issue of annuities is still carried on by the Government as well as by private companies. The greater familiarity with annuities whieh prevails in England, for instance, explains the frequent al lusions to the interest on the public debt as a multitude of perpetual annuities. The repay ment of the principal not being contemplated, the. investor in the funds, acquires the right to re ceive a certain animal income, and this right is transferable to his heirs. Annuities are assum ing new importance in the United States, owing to the fact that most life insurance companies are beginning to issue new and attractive forms of annuity policies.
The mathematical treatment of the subject is extensive, involving the preparation of mortality and investment tables. The formation of these tables is discussed in the Assurance Magazine, a journal of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain and Ireland.
The annuity may he chargeable only to the person of the grantor, or it may be a charge on specific personal or real estate. In either case, if given with words of inheritance, it will de seend as real property, but for all other purposes it will he treated as personal property. In this respect it differs from a rent charge (q.v.), with which it is often confused, but which is always charged on specific real estate and, whether in heritable or not, is always treated as real prop erty. Annuities are classed by Blackstone (Commentaries, Book ii., p. 40) with rents, fran chises, etc., as incorporeal hercditaments (q.v.). Like other species of property, they are generally alienable. except in jurisdictions where by statute beneficiaries of trusts for the payment of annuities are not allowed to alienate their inter ests under the trust.
Consult: Blackstone, Commentaries o91 thc Laws of England Kent, Commentaries on. Lute, and the authorities referred to under the title INSURANCE.