Life Settlement and Viatical Definitions

Compliance - The act of complying with a set of rules set up by a governing body.

E & O Insurance - (Errors and Omissions) Insurance a company has to protect themselves, financially, against making mistakes...verbally, written, or otherwise.

Escrow - Money put into the custody of a third party for the delivery to a grantee or seller only after the completion of a life insurance policy settlement.

Fiduciary Responsibility - Acting in the best interests of a client.

HIPPA law - (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996(HIPAA)) A set of laws requiring the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create regulations governing the disclosure and use of health information.

Institutional Funder - A company who uses company funds, and does not accept an individuals money, to buy insurance policies. Also, an institutional funder polls the policy together into a poll of policies. If there is a transfer of ownership, all of the policies have a similar traits and are analyzed as a group of policies and not individually.

Life Expectancy - A determination of how many years a person has to live based upon statistical data and the insured's medical history. Life expectancy is an educated guess and is calculated by independent medical underwriter companies.

Life Settlement - A Life Settlement is a contractual arrangement in which a funder buys a life insurance policy from people, beyond the age of 65, for a percentage of the face value.

'Low-balling' - The act of offering significantly less than the fair market value for a life insurance policy.

Private Funder - A company or group of investors who poll money together to buy insurance policies. Private funders are often interested in 're-selling' individual policies on the open market. Each time the policy is sold among private investors, new medical underwriting, on the insured, is typically required.

Viatical Settlement - A Viatical Settlement is a contractual arrangement in which a funder buys a life insurance policy from terminally ill patients for a percentage of the face value.