EQUITABLE REVERSIONARY INTEREST SOCIETY

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/B/079-02
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: EQUITABLE REVERSIONARY INTEREST SOCIETY
Date(s)	: 1835-1976
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 85 production units.
Name of creator(s)	: Equitable Reversionary Interest Society

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Equitable Reversionary Interest Society was formed under a Deed of Settlement of 1835 to purchase reversionary interests in real and personal property of whatever kind, to purchase or grant loans at interest secured on life insurance policies, and also to borrow or raise and secure the repayment of money, in particular by the issue of debentures or debenture stock.

The Society was similar in its aims and organisation to the successful Reversionary Interest Society which had been established 12 years previously. The reversionary interest societies were popular because they allowed clients to exchange the certainties of wealth in the future for cash in the present, or to raise loans on them. The societies wished to purchase reversions with a view to making a profit between purchase and recovery (when the reversion had "fallen in" and the property was "recovered"). The profit would be appropriated to the payment of dividends or to reserves (as would that gained from loans etc.)

In 1879, the Equitable Reversionary Interest Society became a company limited by shares. The Society was acquired in 1920 by the Equitable Life Assurance Society which had also purchased the Reversionary Interest Society in the previous year. Thereafter the fortunes of the two reversionary interest societies were complementary. New business was brought to an end in 1977, although the Equitable Life Assurance Society continues to look after current business.

The Society's head office was located as follows: 10 Lancaster Place (1835-1920); 30 Coleman Street (1920-4); 19 Coleman Street (1924-66); and 4 Coleman Street (1966 onwards).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Equitable Reversionary Interest Society including out-letter books; deeds of settlement; minute books; annual reports; ledgers; registers of valuations of reversions; registers of recoveries; and registers of debentures.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The main body of the records (Ms 24926 and Ms 25051- 25062) was deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by the Equitable Life Assurance Society on 25 March and 18 June 1992.

In November 2006, the Actuarial Profession (comprising the Faculty of Actuaries and the Institute of Actuaries) funded the purchase acquisition of all the records of the Equitable Reversionary Interest Society and the Reversionary Interest Society (with the exception of Ms 19030), together with the pre-1950 records of the Equitable Life Assurance Society itself. These records are therefore held as a deposit from the Actuarial Profession, and enquiries relating to publication should be addressed to the Librarian at the Institute of Actuaries, Staple Inn, High Holborn, WC1V 7QJ.

The volumes comprising Ms 19030 were previously in the possession of an employee of the Society whose widow gave them to the Society of Genealogists which donated them to Guildhall Library on 23 July 1980.

The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
November 2010 to January 2011.