The title to this paper deliberately restricts its field. Emphasis is essentially on “The Valuation” and the limitation to Whole Life Policies restricts these notes to the one class to the exclusion of all others, including special policies, which, in any event, would require in the valuation separate treatment. It is not intended to enter into the realms of Industrial Assurance.

Essentially there is no difference between Whole Life and Endowment Assurance Policies, but by restricting the paper to the former it will simplify discussion. It has the advantage also that we have to consider the basic factors—namely, the rates of mortality and interest—in their extreme form, for whereas the terms of Endowment Assurances are comparatively short, thus minimising the effect of error, when dealing with Whole of Life Policies the Actuary has to consider the general trend of mortality and interest rates over a very much longer period, probably fifty or more years.