The work of the actuary is largely made up of the four elements of Mortality, Interest, Taxation and Expense. These form what I shall term the actuary's ‘MITE’, and it is noteworthy that of the four, expense comes both last and least in actuarial literature.

There are many possible reasons for this. Expense is a grim subject and lacks the appeal of the other three. Mortality has its theoretical speculations, its mathematical adventures and sometimes, perhaps, its statistical stumblings. Interest is exciting enough, particularly in our attempts to forecast the yield which a life assurance fund may be expected to earn in the future. Taxation is not very exciting; but it is an intricate subject and all our actuarial ingenuity is sometimes needed to grapple with its problems. Expense, on the other hand, appears simple—at least on the surface; and perhaps its very simplicity is the reason why so little has been written about it. However, it seems to me that the objective analysis of expense is a necessary part of actuarial practice, and I think that it might well figure a little more frequently in our proceedings.