Q.Which feature of a joint stock company means that the death, insolvency, or retirement of a member does not affect the company's continued existence?

A company's life is legally independent of the lives of the people who own it. …

Because a company is a separate legal person, distinct from its members, its existence does not depend on any particular member remaining alive or remaining a member. This property is called perpetual succession — "members may come and members may go, but the company goes on forever", until it is wound up under the procedure the law prescribes. The death, insolvency, retirement, or transfer of shares of any one member (or even of all the original members) simply does not touch the company's own legal existence. This is different from limited liability (option (a)), which is about how much of a member's personal wealth is at risk …

Students sometimes confuse perpetual succession (the company's own continued existence) with transferability of shares (how ownership of a stake in the company can change hands) — t …