I n accord with NAIC recommendations, some states require viatical settlement firms and brokers to hold licenses or be registered with the state insurance commissioner in order to conduct business in that state. Check your state insurance commissioner's office to see if they have guidelines or referral lists for your area. For the United States you can find contact information for your state using the NAIC map of insurance regulators . C alifornia, New York, and Washington have some of the toughest regulations on viatical settlements. You may want to restrict your search to companies and brokers that are licensed to do business in those states even if you live elsewhere or if your state does not regulate viatical companies.
Some states publish their lists of licensed viatical providers on their web sites.
While both death and taxes are unavoidable, taxes are the more predictable of the two. And check if the sudden influx of cash from your accelerated payment or viatical settlement will affect your eligibility for Medicaid and other public assistance programs. B ecause cash flow is the name of the game in the viatical industry, the amount you are offered by a particular company may change from week to week depending on how flush they are. And since their own cash flow is unpredictable, verify that the viatical provider actually has the funds to complete the deal they are offering. Don't accept partial payment or installment payments from a viatical provider, and insist that all the money be placed in an escrow account until the transaction is completed.