The increasing competition from other forms of savings media which emphasise a favourable return on termination makes it desirable to reconsider the existing attitudes of the Life Offices to withdrawals. The aim of the paper is to discuss the current level of withdrawal rates and associated benefits for ordinary life assurance contracts.

In Section I a method of determining crude withdrawal rates is demonstrated and in Section II some of the factors which influence these rates are discussed.

The effect on immunization theory of the introduction of the concept of “contractual” withdrawal benefits is considered in Section III and in Section IV the current levels of withdrawal benefits and the margin for contingencies and profits are examined.