Viatical Settlement Provider

The word viatical comes from the Latin word “viaticus”, meaning “provisions for a long journey”. A viatical settlement is defined as the transfer or sale of a life insurance death benefit to another person or another company if the insured person is terribly ill and is about to die. Oftentimes, a terminally ill person may have few assets such as a life insurance policy and to compensate for the medical expenses, the ill person may sell his or her life insurance policy to an individual or a company to pay for the medical care, medicine and other types of expenses.

Basically, the company or the person of a viatical settlement obtaining the life insurance policy death benefit will pay the ill person or the viator at a discounted amount of the real price of the death benefit and is now considered the new beneficiary of the life insurance policy while receiving the whole amount of the death benefit when the viator has already passed away. Many companies buy life insurance policy from viator at discounted price while reselling them at marked-up prices as part of their investments.

If you think you have a terminal illness, you may sort to sell the insurance policy that you have to a viatical settlement company in a lump cash payment. A viatical settlement company or provider is a company or a person which purchases death benefits of life insurance policies from ill person less than the expected amount of death benefits. Transactions in viatical settlement involve terminally ill people to assign their life insurance policies to a viatical settlement company which in turn may sell such life insurance policy to a third-party investor. The investor will then be the new beneficiary of the policy which has the responsibility to pay the mandated premiums and is responsible to collect the value of the policy once the real owner of the policy dies.

There are many options for terminally ill people when financial needs are very critical. They may opt to take a loan or sell the insurance policy to a viatical settlement company.

Upon selling the life insurance policy to the viatical settlement provider, the company or the individual will be the sole beneficiary of the entire policy while delivering payment to the policyholder and paying the mandated premiums of the policy.

Viataical settlements are complex financial and legal transactions. They need enough attention and time from financial planners, physicians, accountants, insurance companies and lawyers. The entire transaction and transfer may reach of up to four months to be completely settled.

Every viatical settlement provider outlines own standards and rules in choosing which life insurance policy will be purchased. For instance, viatical companies may need policies that show:
• You are ill;
• You sign releasing document allowing them to access your medical records;
• Your beneficiary signs a waiver or a release;
• You own the policy of at least two years.

A lot of companies may check if the insurance company that issued your life insurance policy is financially sound. This is to ensure that the life insurance policy purchased is a good investment that will in return make good profits.