In the discussion that followed the reading of a paper before the Institute of Actuaries Students’ Society, by E. A. Woodall on the valuation of special policies, F. Bedford explained that certain classes, such as joint life endowment assurances, could be valued conveniently by assuming that all the policies will mature at the same age, and calculating the net premium on the same assumption. This method is mentioned in the Students’ Journal, vol. I, No. 2, pp. 24–26, where Mr. Woodall, in giving the method in the abstract of his paper and the discussion, explains how the method applies to certain classes, and writes : “Since the reserve for an endowment assurance maturing at “70 or 75 is practically the same as the reserve for an endowment “assurance of the same term maturing at 50, 55, 60, or 65, the “error of 10 years in the equivalent age is of little importance,” “provided the net premium is calculated on the same assumptions.” This quotation may be taken as the text for the present paper, which discusses the application of the method to ordinary endowment assurances and the errors involved in its use.

The subject of this Paper is Whole Life Non-Profit Assurances with uniform Premiums payable throughout life.

In choosing this subject for investigation, I have been influenced mainly by the following reasons :

(1) This type of policy represents life assurance in one of its simplest and earliest forms. The premium and the sum assured are both fixed throughout life, save for the very slight chance of insolvency of the office causing the contract to be reduced. Also nowadays it is not uncommon to find that the surrender values and equivalent paid-up policies are guaranteed from the outset.

(2) Other tables such as Whole Life by Limited Premiums, Half Premiums for first “n” years, &c., are as a rule founded on the basis of the simple whole life ordinary rates.

(3) A considerable body of data derived directly from the experience of British Offices under ordinary whole life non-profit policies is available as a result of the British Offices Mortality Investigation, 1863-93.

(4) In spite of the apparent simplicity of the contract, there are marked divergencies in the rates of premium charged by first-class offices and in the surrender values and equivalent paid-up policies offered by them.