THE PERFORMANCE OF PROPRIETARY COMPARED WITH MUTUAL LIFE OFFICES

There are reasons to believe that the form of ownership of an organisa tion may have an impact on its performance but no evidence before now for the UK life insurance industry, which contains proprietary and mut ual offices operating in the same environment. This article compares t he two groups in terms of average payouts on endowment policies for 19 70-92, average cost ratios for 1983-90 and average growth rates betwee n 1981 and 1990. On these three measures the mutuals have performed be tter during the periods analysed.