Aggregate Mortality Table

Ghoulish as it may sound in the abstract, life insurance companies invest heavily in detailed data about death. But hey, who are we to judge? A lot of extremely useful professions have a close day-to-day relationship with the morbid: doctors dissect cadavers in order to train, undertakers put makeup on corpses on a daily basis, and certain employees at life insurance companies pour over statistics about mortality.

One of the key statistical records these life insurance folks use: the aggregate mortality table. This includes information on death rates for people buying insurance. It's used to see how often certain events happen, allowing life insurance companies to set rates properly. These calculations basically keep the companies in business, and keep us getting life insurance.

Remember that you-the-customer pay some amount…like n hundreds of dollars each month for that million dollar policy payoff to your spouse and kids. And every month you don't die, the life insurance company keeps all that money and invests it, with the assumption that, over time, you will have paid them a ton more in premiums than that million dollar policy you'll get at The End. The jets owned by insurance companies are awesome for a reason.