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Tontine: The Newest Ultimate Adventure Race

I can’t wait for this show! The grand prize is 10 million big ones!!! That’s crazy! I just found out that it airs in the fall of 2009 (it was suppose to air this fall).

Here’s the gist:
Hosted by Rob Mariano (The Amazing Race and Survivor fame), 15 contestants are each given a key. One of the keys unlocks the riches of the 10 milllllyun dollars! Once the keys are doled out, the race begins and over the next 100 days the contestants will face mental challenges and physical tasks. In the end, the person who holds at 15 keys wins!!!

Here’s the history of the tontine (courtesy of Wikipedia):
The basic concept is simple. Each investor pays a sum into the tontine. The funds are invested and each investor receives dividens. As each investor dies, his or her share is divided amongst the surviving investors. This process continues until only one investor survives. Originally, the last surviving subscriber received only the dividends: the capital reverted to the state upon his or her death and was used to fund public works projects, which often contained the word “tontine” in their name. In a later variation, the capital would devolve upon the last survivor, effectively dissolving the trust and usually making the survivor very wealthy; it is this version that has often been the plot device for mysteries and detective stories.

While once very popular in France, Britain and the United States, tontines have been banned in Britain and the United States due to the incentive for investors to kill one another, thereby increasing their shares. Geneva, in Switzerland, was known for its active market in tontines in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nevertheless, there are underground organizations in the US that still use the tontine, and ownership of a business or property by joint tenancy with right of survivorship has much the same effect.

I’ll have more updates from time to time.

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