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A tontine is a pooled life annuity. Its characteristic feature is that the annuities of deceased annuitants are shared by surviving annuitants. This makes tontines an attractive pension product. It is said that Lorenzo Tonti (1602-1684) invented them in 1653. The different authors analyse the origins of tontines, their developments in selected countries, their importance for the development of insurance (law), their decline, and their potential as a pension product of the future.

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A tontine may be described as a pooled life annuity. Investors buy shares, and the issuer promises to pay interest on the raised capital. The characteristic feature of tontines is that the annuities of deceased investors are shared by surviving investors. With the death of the last survivor, the issuer´s obligation to pay annuities terminates and the issuer has no obligation to pay the raised capital back. Investors may use a tontine as a pension product and the issuer may use it as a means to raise capital. It is generally believed that the Italian Lorenzo Tonti (1602-1684) invented tontines and that he proposed them to Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661) in 1653.

The different authors analyse the origins of tontines, their diverse developments and careers in selected countries, their importance for the development of insurance (law), their decline in the late 19th and early 20th century and their potential as a pension product of the future.

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Phillip Hellwege
Introduction

1. The Framework for the Development of Tontines

Christian Rietsch and Georges Gallais-Hamonno
Lorenzo Tonti

Georges Gallais-Hamonno and Christian Rietsch
Financial Engineering in the 17th and 18th Centuries - Tontines in England, France, and Ireland

Robin Pearson
The Socio-Economic Setting for Developing Tontines from the 17th to the 19th Centuries

2. A Comparative Legal History of Tontines

Sophie Delbrel
Tontines in France from the Ancien Régime to the Third Republic

Boudewijn Sirks
Tontines in the Dutch Republic and the Early Kingdom (1670-1869)

John MacLeod
Tontines in England and Scotland

Martin Sunnqvist
Tontines in Scandinavia

Phillip Hellwege
Tontines in German-Speaking Territories

Kent McKeever
Tontines in Portugal - Nicholas Bourey´s Paleo-Tontine of 1641
Maura Fortunati
Tontines in Italy

Rafael Illescas
Tontines in Spain

Kent McKeever
The Evolution of the Tontine in North America

Marcelo Nasser
Tontines in Latin America

Jan Halberda
Tontines in Poland

Balázs Tökey
Tontines in Hungary

Tamara Korchagina
The Russian Experience with Tontine Insurance

3. The Present and Future of Tontines

Moshe A. Milevsky
What Can Tontine Design of the Future Learn from Its Past?

Jan-Hendrik Weinert
Tontines in Europe Today

Jonathan Barry Forman and Michael J. Sabin
Tontines in the Western World Today

Salvatore Mancuso
Tontines and other Forms of Rotating Credit Associations in Africa

4. Comparative Analyses

Jerònia Pons Pons
A Comparative Analysis from the Perspective of Economic History

Phillip Hellwege
A Comparative Analysis from the Perspective of Legal History

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