Cash for the Final Days: A Financial Guide for the Terminally Ill and Their Advisors,Used

Product Description The first consumer advocacy book on Viatical Settlements, the new industry that buys the death benefits of life insurance from people who are terminally ill. The book includes a discussion of Accelerated Death Benefits, which are paid by insurers and pay almost dollarfordollar and much faster than Viatical Settlements. Other sources of cash are included reverse mortgages are one example each with arrows that point to areas you should be wary of. The book is intended for professional advisors as well as family and loved ones, since few professionals know enough to give sound advice. If Viatical Settlements are the right choice, stepbystep guides will help you find a trustworthy buyer, help you get the most money, show you how to reduce risk and how to reduce the tax bite. The Appendix is packed with sample application forms which you may copy, and a Viatical Providers Grid, to help you choose those companies most willing to work with your diagnosis and your type of insurance. From Scientific American This book makes a powerful case that reform, in the nature of consumer protections and disclosures, is vital in the Viatical Settlement arena ... If unauthorized firms flourish primarily because their targets are not aware that they are illegal, if most advisors to the terminally ill are similarly unaware of viatical regulation, then regulation and public education are the key to reform. From The New Yorker Caregivers need to know how this industry works and how valuable an option it may be for them. Review I plan to sell my insurance when it's past the twoyear incontestability period. I just read Cash for the Final Days and am very grateful someone has pout out a very practical and consumeroriented publication. E.R., San Diego, CAOver 1,000 terminally ill people will sell their life insurance this year; but many sellers won't get paid. This imparts the basics of how to sell your life insurance; from choosing a broker and understanding the application process to getting the most money. Any who have life insurance which is salable as well as social workers and tax professionals will find the specific tips here to be important. Midwest Book ReviewUntil this book, there was no guide for the terminally ill and their loved ones through the maze of the viatical Settlement industry, no way to maximize the cash going to the ill person, no help in making the decision of whether to use Viatical Settlements at all, no discussion of what the other options available for cash are for a very ill person. Ralph Nader, consumer advocate par excellence From the Publisher If you are terminally ill and financially desperate, or you know someone in this situation, you'll discover a new industry that buys the death benefits of life insurance for cash. Viatical settlements can be close to a miracle solution, for those who have no other alternative. But if you decide to do business with viatical providers, you need to know the risks and the methods for getting thousands of dollars more than these companies want to pay. There are dozens of scams con men who prey on the terminally ill, who use viatical settlements to line their own pockets. Some will take your policy and never pay a dime; or pay two installments, then stop; or pay thousands less than if you knew the rules rules you won't find anywhere but in this book. From the Author I wrote Cash for the Final Days while advising AIDS patients about tax problems and Viatical Settlements. When I realized that no one outside the local community knew to phone me for advice local people who had cancer, heart disease, or other fatal illnesses and that few people knew that in more than a dozen states there were laws to protect terminally ill insureds from the scams that were arriving in my mail box, I knew it was time to make this information available everywhere in the nation. Viatical Settlements are a wonde