On the Measure of Expenses in Life Insurance Companies

Extract

Referring to Mr. Sprague's reply to the Discussion on his paper (J. I. A. xix, 324), I would wish to point out that the admission by me, that a company, for its own internal purposes, may discriminate between expenditure on old and on new business, is not an admission of the principle which Mr. Sprague contends for. It required no argument to show that when an office wished to know what its new business was costing, it would be requisite for it to disentangle the expenditure on new business from general outlay. It is no conversion to Mr. Sprague's views to admit this. The point between us is not that, but the more complex one of the common measure to apply to outlay on all business, both old and new.