tontine

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The Word of the Day for October 15 is:

tontine   \TAHN-teen\   noun
     : a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually 
contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who 
survives all the others

Example sentence:
     When all the participants in the tontine but one were murdered, you can 
guess who the primary suspect was.

Did you know?
     Tontines were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker named Lorenzo 
Tonti. In 1653, Tonti convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he had 
created. Each year, the investors earned dividends, and when one of them died, 
his or her share of the profits was redistributed among the survivors. When the 
last investor died, the capital reverted to the state. Louis XIV of France used 
tontines to save his ailing treasury and to fund municipal projects, and 
private tontines (where the last surviving investor -- and subsequently his or 
her heirs -- got the cash instead of the state) became popular throughout 
Europe and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines were banned; there was just 
too much temptation for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow 
subscribers.