'Risk' and 'life' -- four-letter words (TT May03 p32-33)

Life is a sexually transmitted disease that is always fatal. I don’t know who first uttered this cliche or in what context, but it serves to underline a point about life assurance. If you’re gonna go sometime (and you are), then it is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’, and it is against that background that decisionmaking and valuation take on a different perspective. The key to appreciating life is balancing a probability now against a future that may not happen. Risk is a fundamental of existence – a balancing of one thing against another, neither of which may be known.