You may be thinking about life insurance, too. It's in that context that you may hear the phrases accelerated benefits and viatical settlements. They are the proceeds of life insurance policies that are paid by the insurer to policyholders before they die. Occasionally, these benefits are included in policies when they are sold, but usually, they are offered as riders or attachments to new or existing policies.
Viatical settlements involve the sale of a life insurance policy.
If you have a terminal illness, you may consider selling your policy to a viatical settlement company for a lump sum cash payment. In a viatical settlement transaction, people with terminal illnesses assign their life insurance policies to viatical settlement companies in exchange for a percentage of the policy's face value. The viatical settlement company, in turn, may sell the policy to a third-party investor. The viatical settlement company or the investor becomes the beneficiary to the policy, pays the premiums, and collects the face value of the policy after the original policyholder dies. The fact is that any decision affecting life insurance benefits can have a profound financial and emotional impact on dependents, friends, and care-givers.