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1996 SESSION

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HB 871 Viatical agreement monitoring.

Introduced by: Marian Van Landingham | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY:

Viatical agreement monitoring. Authorizes the State Corporation Commission to require any person engaging in the business of brokering or providing viatical agreements to first register, in accordance with the Commission's procedures and to pay a registration fee. The Commission is also authorized to investigate viatical brokers or providers after receiving a complaint. No regulatory activities are authorized.

Viatical agreements are contracts to purchase insurance benefits for lump sums from individuals who are terminally ill, when the lump sum payment is less than the death benefits. These agreements are, in effect, "death futures."

There is a growing and quite aggressive viatical industry in the United States which developed in response to the AIDS epidemic and other terminal illnesses. The financial needs of patients who have reached a low ebb in their financial resources can be accommodated in this manner.

This unregulated industry provides the means, for patients' whose life insurance policies do not include living benefits, for maintaining a quality of life that would otherwise be impossible. The potential for exploitation of vulnerable and seriously ill individuals has created some concerns.


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