Life Insurance Your life expectancy Written by: Penny Gusner Penny Gusner Penny is an expert on insurance procedures, rates, policies and claims. She has extensive knowledge of all major insurance lines -- auto, homeowners, life and health insurance. She has been answering consumers’ questions as an analyst for more than 15 years and has been featured in numerous major media outlets, including the Washington Post and Kiplinger’s. | Reviewed by: Michelle Megna Michelle Megna Michelle, the former editorial director, insurance, at QuinStreet, is a writer, editor and expert on car insurance and personal finance. Prior to joining QuinStreet, she reported and edited articles on technology, lifestyle, education and government for magazines, websites and major newspapers, including the New York Daily News. | Posted on March 2, 2010 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing honest and reliable information so that you can make the best financial decisions for you and your family. All of our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. We maintain strict editorial independence from insurance companies to maintain our editorial integrity, so our recommendations are unbiased and are based on a comprehensive list of criteria. Last updated July 12, 2010 Your life expectancy is everything to your life insurer. There are thousands of life insurance underwriters employed across the nation whose job is to accurately guess your life expectancy. Your health conditions and your family history are used to calculate your quoted rate up or down. Each life insurance company works from its own sophisticated life expectancy tables. Further, life insurance companies must be financially ready to pay claims and prove their financial stability. We certainly can’t have a nation full of loose cannon insurance companies making up all sorts of financial numbers. To make sure everyone is on the same page, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners releases an official “mortality table” that is the legal standard for “reserves and nonforfeiture benefits of currently issued ordinary life insurance policies.” (If you care to know what that means, it’s explained below.) John Bruins, Senior Actuary with the American Council of Life Insurers, explains that “life expectancy at age ‘X’ is the average future life for someone at that age.” For example, the table below shows that a newborn boy has a life expectancy of almost 77 years. But that doesn’t mean he is expected to die at age 77; rather, males alive at age 77 will have an average life expectancy of about 9 more years. Bruins explains that the chart shows that among males age 77, about half are deceased and the other half are expected to live an average of about 9 years more — some longer and some shorter. Now, the numbers, please: Your life expectancy Age Male Female Age Male Female 0 76.60 80.73 60 20.64 24.08 1 75.68 79.81 61 19.85 23.27 2 74.73 78.86 62 19.06 22.47 3 73.76 77.90 63 18.29 21.68 4 72.78 76.93 64 17.54 20.90 5 71.80 75.95 65 16.80 20.12 6 70.81 74.97 66 16.08 19.36 7 69.83 73.98 67 15.37 18.60 8 68.84 73.00 68 14.68 17.86 9 67.86 72.02 69 13.99 17.12 10 66.88 71.03 70 13.32 16.40 11 65.89 70.05 71 12.66 15.69 12 64.91 69.07 72 12.01 14.99 13 63.93 68.08 73 11.39 14.31 14 62.95 67.10 74 10.78 13.64 15 61.98 66.13 75 10.18 12.98 16 61.02 65.15 76 9.61 12.34 17 60.07 64.17 77 9.05 11.71 18 59.12 63.20 78 8.50 11.10 19 58.17 62.23 79 7.98 10.50 20 57.23 61.26 80 7.49 9.92 21 56.29 60.28 81 7.01 9.35 22 55.34 59.31 82 6.57 8.81 23 54.40 58.34 83 6.14 8.29 24 53.45 57.37 84 5.74 7.79 25 52.51 56.40 85 5.36 7.32 26 51.57 55.43 86 5.00 6.87 27 50.62 54.46 87 4.66 6.43 28 49.68 53.49 88 4.35 6.02 29 48.74 52.53 89 4.07 5.64 30 47.79 51.56 90 3.81 5.29 31 46.85 50.60 91 3.57 4.96 32 45.90 49.63 92 3.35 4.61 33 44.95 48.67 93 3.15 4.26 34 44.00 47.71 94 2.96 3.93 35 43.05 46.7 95 2.78> 3.63 36 42.11 45.80 96 2.62 3.38 37 41.16 44.84 97 2.47 3.18 38 40.21 43.89 98 2.32 3.02 39 39.27 42.94 99 2.19 2.82 40 38.33 42.00 100 2.07 2.61 41 37.39 41.05 101 1.96 2.42 42 36.46 40.11 102 1.86 2.23 43 35.53 39.17 103 1.76 2.06 44 34.61 38.23 104 1.66 1.89 45 33.69 37.29 105 1.57 1.74 46 32.78 36.36 106 1.48 1.60 47 31.87 35.43 107 1.39 1.47 48 30.97 34.51 108 1.30 1.36 49 30.07 33.60 109 1.22 1.25 50 29.18 32.69 110 1.14 1.16 51 28.28 31.79 111 1.07 1.47 52 27.40 30.90 112 0.99 1.00 53 26.52 30.01 113 0.92 0.93 54 25.65 29.14 114 0.85 0.86 55 24.79 28.27 115 0.79 0.79 56 23.94 27.41 116 0.72 0.73 57 23.10 26.57 117 0.66 0.67 58 22.27 25.73 118 0.61 0.61 59 21.45 24.90 119 0.55 0.56 60 20.64 24.08 120 0.50 0.50 Source: National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2001 Commissioners Standard Ordinary Mortality Table The 2001 Commissioners Standard Ordinary (CSO) Mortality Table is the legally required table for calculating life insurance company reserves and nonforfeitures values as of Jan. 1, 2009. That means life insurers must look at their policyholders’ ages and then calculate how much money they must hold in reserves to pay future policy benefits using the mortality rates of the 2001 CSO. It also means that the 2001 CSO is the basis for determining guaranteed cash values and other nonforfeiture benefits. These are the amounts that are available to a policyholders if they surrender the life insurance contracts. Penny GusnerContributor   . .Penny is an expert on insurance procedures, rates, policies and claims. She has extensive knowledge of all major insurance lines -- auto, homeowners, life and health insurance. She has been answering consumers’ questions as an analyst for more than 15 years and has been featured in numerous major media outlets, including the Washington Post and Kiplinger’s. Related Articles What is a contingent beneficiary? By Desiree Ghazi What is demutualization and what does it mean for policyholders? 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