Macdonalds' client base includes national and local house builders, life assurance companies, pension providers and charities.

BBC: Morton Fraser headquarters

Most of these schemes will also provide valuable life assurance benefits, with up to four years' salary being paid out on death.

BBC: purse and cash

The court ruled that the taxation of life assurance by Sweden was illegal because it discriminated against firms from other European countries.

ECONOMIST: Europe

His solution to this quandary was a bone-headed life assurance scam.

ECONOMIST: Literary history: Murderous man | The

The organisation was recently told that a gay couple from Porthmadog were asked to take a HIV test before being given life assurance for a mortgage.

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The European ruling means that women will also pay more for life assurance, while men will receive lower annuities - a pension income for the rest of their lives.

BBC: Insurance premiums for young female drivers soar

But those liabilities may not have remained with the communists: a group of Czech lawyers studying a 1968 treaty between Czechoslovakia and Italy suspects that, under it, life-assurance liabilities may have reverted to the Italians.

ECONOMIST: Insurance and the Holocaust

There are few certitudes in life that transcend the assurance of rising taxes on tobacco.

FORBES: Altria Group: E-Cigarettes Or Die?

With the acquisition of Fortify Software, HP will offer a complete, market-leading solution that helps organizations reduce business risk, meet compliance regulations and protect against malicious application attacks by integrating security assurance seamlessly across the application life cycle.

FORBES: HP Buys Bug-Hunting Business Fortify