Description: This featured several amusing references to the actuarial profession in various venues including an open letter, a story and a play.

Description: A committee chaired by former Prime Minister, Sir Harold Wilson, has published its findings from a study on the functioning of British financial institutions and their value to the economy. This article reports on five of the report's topics that are of special interest to actuaries.

Description: This article shows some vital statistics of Canada including births, deaths, marriages and divorces per 1000 population along with motor vehicle deaths in the years 1972, 1975, 1978 and 1981.

Description: This article is a book review of 'Adventures and Misadventures in the Stock Market' by retired actuary, James G. Bruce, who talks about his personal finances. Asked by the reviewer why he believes that actuaries might appreciate his book, Mr. Bruce mentions that actuaries have curiosity about how people, especially fellow actuaries, reason, act and react that they may relish judging how wise or foolish he’s been and that comparisons of his views with those of others may prove useful.

Description: This article discusses the works of Griffith Davies and other early writers on life contingencies.

Description: This is a discussion about agency matters such as: new agents, experienced agents, general agents and managers, agent survival rates, etc. Also discussed is the impact that Medicare will have on private health insurance business. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1966, Vol. 18 Pt. 2, No. 50.

Description: This discussion addresses the following questions about health insurance maternity benefits: 1. What has been the claim, lapse, and expense experience on hospital-medical policies with maternity benefits issued to young married couples? 2. To what extent have hospital-medical policies been introduced with reduced maternity benefits during the early policy years or with no maternity benefits? 3. What other measures are being used to provide maternity benefits on a self-sustaining basis? 4. Are these measures effective? From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1963, Vol. 15 Pt. 2

Description: Article from The Actuary, April 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 4, that discusses actuaries who practiced in North America up to 1869. This tabulation, by company, of actuaries who flourished more than 20 years before the Actuarial Society of America was organized in April 1889, is by way of being a second progress report - see our May 1982 and September 1982 issues.

Description: This article is about war mortality from an 1859 copy of The Spectator, by the Institute of Actuaries, J.I.A. 8 1859, 268-284.

Description: At least three of our members have received attention lately in The New York Times. This is a series of short pieces focusing on unusual and amusing stories of actuaries.