A life settlement insurance policy is when someone else pays you a lump sum, takes over your premiums, and then collects your benefits after your death.

Talk about a death watch…

This is the eerie side to the insurance industry.  In fact, some insurance companies do not endorse the practice. 

After all, the insurance industry thrives on good public relations; or least it aspires to that goal.

Still, it can be a struggle to maintain a balance between public opinion, the government and ethics.

So through the years, insurance companies have bought our risks.  Now, apparently, some of them are selling  those same risks to the highest bidders.

This new commodity approach is making many observers nervous, and for good reason.

If your policy ends up in the hands of strangers, is there a possibility for abuse? Perhaps.

Talk show host Larry King thinks he has already been scammed.  He wants out of his policy.

His claim, in a lawsuit against a Maryland insurance brokerage, is that he wasn't told who will benefit when he dies.

(Out-of-work screen  writers might find a good movie plot or two in here somewhere while they wait out the strike).

But if you really stop to think about that, it could be unnerving.

Critics continue to pounce all over these policies.  So far only about 25 states have life settlement laws.

 An Insurance Man Builds a Lively Business in Death

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