A Group Life and Pension Scheme is an employer's scheme instituted for the benefit of his employees. The real position of the life office, which is usually responsible for arranging the scheme, is that of underwriter. From the life office's point of view, with which this paper is solely concerned, the guaranteeing of these schemes on a group basis, as opposed to issuing an individual policy on the life of each employee, is a special class of business with certain definite characteristics which have not changed very much since N. C. Turner presented his paper to the Students' Society in 1930 on the subject of Group Insurance and Group Pension Schemes.

1. Recent investigation has brought to light the fact that the usual formulae are not necessarily practicable for the calculation of the force of mortality at very young ages. The problem is not only of considerable theoretical interest, but is also of practical importance to the Industrial Assurance Companies, which transact a very considerable volume of business at these ages. These companies use continuous functions for their various calculations, and μ being large at these very young ages, variations in the method of calculation are of such importance as to justify a detailed examination of the matter.