Even though, the executors knew at the time of filing exactly how much had gone to charity, they were still required to use standard mortalitytables to value its interest.
On August 1st the actuaries' trade body adopted a new set of mortalitytables drawing on data collected between 1999 and 2002, It forecasts yet another increase in life expectancy.
The man who ultimately did, Charles Babbage, was as much the Renaissance man as Alberti--he also invented the speedometer, the cowcatcher and the mortalitytables that are the basis of today's life insurance.
Her point: there are a lot of variables (lifestyle and genetics) that go into how long any one might live, and published mortalitytables are just a starting place to figuring it out.