Workmen's Compensation Reserves

The subject of the reserves necessary to establish workmen's compensation insurance in the United States upon a solvent basis is one which will doubtless occupy a large share of the attention of this Society during the immediate future. No satisfactory precedents or established methods of computing such reserves are as yet available and numerous contributions to the subject, from varying points of view, will be necessary before it can be treated as disposed of. No solution of the problem finally satisfactory from an actuarial standpoint will be possible until the analyzed statistics of some years' experience with workmen's compensation in the United States are available. Meanwhile the practical question is to find a method of computing reserves which will be workable as an insurance department requirement and uniformly applicable, so far as may be, to companies operating in many states and under varying workmen's compensation laws.