When an insurance company issues a policy of a 35 y/o male - the company really has no way of kning or accurately predicting when he will die. So they use the __________ to look at people who are the same age - sex and have similar health and lifestyle conditions to make conclusions based on the statistics of past losses. This allows the insurance company yo have a general idea about the predicted time of death for this type of insured and to set the premiums accordingly.