The world of life insurance is mostly boring statistics, actuarial tables and creepy TV commercials. But there are also some exotic twists in the insurance world, and one of them is the basis for my investing idea. The twist is the viatical settlement, an old idea that got a new lease on life (sorry) when the AIDS crisis first flared up. The idea was that AIDS patients–who had limited life expectancies before today’s medications were developed–would sell the rights to their life insurance settlements, then take the money and use it for medical expenses, or a last vacation, or...
