Tontine - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition tontine

Definition :

Tontine, a life-annuity, or a loan raised on life-annuities, with benefit of survivorship. The term originated from the circumstance that Lorenzo Tonti, an Italian, invented this kind of security in the seventeenth century, when the Governments of Europe had some difficulty in raising money in consequence of the wars of Louis XIV, who first adopted the plan in France. a loan was obtained from several individuals on the grant of an annuity to each of them, on the understanding that, as deaths occurred, the annuity should continue payable to the survivors, and that the last survivor should take the whole. This mode of raising money has more than once been adopted by the English Government (see, e.g., 29 Geo. 3, c. 41, amended by 30 Geo. 3, c. 45), and also for the purpose of private speculations, but it has almost entirely fallen into disuse.