The question of bonus distributions has been much in the minds of actuaries during the post-war period. In October 1959 a paper was submitted by Benz to the Institute of Actuaries which he introduced with the following remarks: ‘Recent financial events have caused new problems to come before actuaries when advising on the finances of life offices and, in particular, on bonus distributions to with-profit policyholders. These problems may be said very briefly to centre around the question of what circumstances make it appropriate for an office to depart from the normal procedure for distributing bonuses.’