Word: ills
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...PRTM operates 14 offices around the world. U.S. offices are in Costa Mesa, Calif; Mountain View, Calif; Irving, Tex.; Rosemont, Ill.; Southfield, Mich...
Then in 1996 Congress made the proceeds from most viatical settlements tax exempt, and the business really took off. Increasing numbers of terminally ill people, including those suffering from cancer or heart disease, have sold their life-insurance policies to enjoy their death benefits while they're still alive. This year alone, more than $1 billion in viatical settlements, only about half related to AIDS, will be brokered, according to the National Viatical Association (NVA), roughly 20 times as much as when the business began. Relatively healthy elderly people are also hawking their policies for some additional income; $3 billion...
Viators can be victims too. There are brokers who reap hefty, 18% commissions without getting the sellers--often ill, vulnerable people--the best deal available. One viator who went through Alpha Capital Group, a viatical provider that is fighting a cease-and-desist order from Washington State, ultimately received $5,400, or 6% of the policy's $90,000 face value...
Industry representatives support uniform regulation but hope officials don't go too far in their zeal to crack down. "It's a critical option that every terminally ill person should have," says Valerie Cooper, executive director of the NVA, who claims scam artists don't represent the bulk of law-abiding viatical providers, like Page & Associates and the Ardan Group. Gloria Wolk, chief consumer advocate for viaticals www.viatical-expert.net) is worried that money for legitimate viatical settlements could disappear: "Fraud can destroy this industry and leave patients high...
Competition may provide an alternative. To help slow the growing appeal of viaticals, more insurance companies are offering so-called accelerated death benefits, which, like viaticals, award a certain portion of the policies' face value to terminally ill patients before they die. That way, people can take it with them, and there's little chance that investors will be taken...