The purpose of this paper is to indicate some of the points which arise during the currency of transactions in reversions and life interests; the selections of appropriate bases for mortality, interest, valuation of funds and estate duties do not fall within the scope of the paper. References to strictly legal aspects are no more than incidental.

As in many other matters with which actuaries are concerned, mistakes (including errors of judgment) sometimes only become apparent many years after they were made. It follows, therefore, that no hard and fast distinctions can be drawn between the preliminaries necessary to a transaction and what comes after. For this reason I feel obliged to refer to my earlier paper entitled ‘Notes on transacting new business in reversions and life interests’ which appeared in this Journal (10, 1); it is hoped, however, that the present paper will be found to be complete in itself.