Released: June 21, 2009

Betting on death: Life settlement markets

Source: Ben Popper, Washington Post (Free Registration)

Investors love a sure thing, and in this life, it doesn’t get more certain than death. So it’s no surprise that in recent years the market for investing in life settlements—buying a stake in someone else’s insurance and collecting the reward when he or she dies—has grown tenfold to nearly $20 billion.

Life settlements can offer legitimate value to investors and policyholders, but the industry remains largely unregulated. And just like the overheated mortgage securities market, they’ve given rise to a flood of fraudulent policies, this time on people’s lives.

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