comparativereservetables

Comparative Reserve Tables
(C) 1915
By Myles Menander Dawson

This is a book of various life and mortality tables from the early 1900’s. While most folks would consider it just another book of mortality tables, it’s significant because this is the book that started select and ultimate rates.

For those not familiar with the what that is, Select rates are the life insurance rates you get when you first qualify for a life insurance policy. You’ve taken your medical exam and proven your good health. Now in 10 years, statistically your health is no longer ‘proven’, your health is assumed to be the same as the general population. So at that time, you would get rates closer to someone who hasn’t just proven their health. Those rates are ‘ultimate’.

For actuaries in the crowd, it seems like select and ultimate rates are an obvious state – everyone uses these tables and they’re part of the foundation of pricing life insurance. But it’s worth noting that this book is the very first example of tables containing select and ultimate rates. And the author of this book founded that entire branch of actuarial science.

Myles Menander Dawson was an actuary in the late 1800’s. He’s not commonly seen amongst the ‘greats’ of actuarial science with people like Charles Babbage or Augustus De Morgan. But in my opinion this man did as much to advance the practical aspects of actuarial science in the past 100 years as anyone else. He’s just plain underappreciated.

In addition to revolutionizing the industry with select and ultimate rates, Myles Menander Dawson was also the original consulting actuary at A.M. Best Company. A.M. Best of course is the rating agency that’s still around today and perceived to be the ultimate authority in life insurance company ratings.