It is over 20 years since the surrender values and paid-up policy amounts of ordinary policies were made a subject for discussion in this Hall. Industrial surrender values have been recently discussed. This paper is therefore primarily concerned with ordinary policies. In practice a company can grant whatever scales of surrender values or paid-up policies it may choose, provided it does not depart from any written, verbal or implied obligations to its policy-holders. There are, however, certain principles of equity to which consideration should be given, and it is along these lines that the problem is investigated.