It has now become very generally recognized, I think, that finance is decidedly the most important factor in the conduct of life assurance business. This subject does not appear to have received, in earlier times, the intensive study which its significance deserved; latterly, however, it has attracted steadily increasing attention and now occupies a very prominent position in the transactions of our Institute.

It is probably true to say that in accordance with a fairly generally accepted principle the investment programme during recent years has been largely confined to securities of what may be called the “semi-trustee” type, i.e., those which are cheaper than statutory trustee securities though not very greatly inferior in quality. Usually a small proportion only of the programme has been devoted to a rather limited range of 2nd grade or high-yielding investments, and in our discussions at the Students' Society comparatively little has been said about these. I propose, therefore, in the present paper to state the case in favour of this latter type of security and to put forward the suggestion that the time has arrived when a quite considerable proportion of our new investments might with advantage be selected from this category.