Life is Like a Box of Chocolates: Our Singapore Actuarial Tables – Practices Today and What May Lie Ahead

The advent of the Singapore Actuarial Tables to aid in computing future losses for personal injury and death claims has been the single most significant development in the law on assessment of damages in the last three decades.

It has been said that computing future losses “involves a double exercise in the art of prophesying not only what the future holds for the injured plaintiff but also what the future would have held for him if he had not been injured.” (Paul v Rendell (1981) 34 ALR 569, 571).  In what is perhaps a more familiar quote, a certain wise man once said “Life is Like a Box of Chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

Indeed, a serious injury or death in the family is often a life-changing event for those injured or left behind.  As our legal community strives to refine the methodology of assessing damages, many of us grapple with several important questions. To take into account vicissitudes other than mortality, should there be an additional discounter to reduce the award as computed by the tables? Should the tables be applied to non-residents and if not, what can be done to improve future awards for such litigants? Do the tables apply to Loss of Inheritance claims?

Join us for a lively discussion led by a panel of senior lawyers, a legal academic and one of the actuaries who assisted in drawing up the Singapore Actuarial Tables. Our Guest-of-Honour, the Honourable Senior Judge Quentin Loh, will also give a keynote address. 

There will also be a presentation by Special Needs Trust Co to introduce the services of trust companies in assisting families to manage the litigation award.