American Experience Table

What Does American Experience Table Mean?

The American Experience Table was the nineteenth century precursor to the Commissioner's Standard Ordinary Table (CSO). The table helped insurance companies assess their underwriting risks by providing data about the life expectancy rates of people within certain age ranges.

Insuranceopedia Explains American Experience Table

The American Experience Table looked at data from a sample of 100,000 people of a certain age group. Based on how many of them died in a given year, life insurance companies could estimate how many death benefits they would have to pay out every year.

Insurance companies still use mortality tables to assess the risk of insuring policyholders but now favor more sophisticated and comprehensive ones.