Nprs Planet Money
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You bet your life insurance
Posted
August 14, 2026
Views
165
Likes
7
Engagement
4.24%
August 14, 2026
165
7
4.24%
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42:11Now PlayingSome of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because there’s a market for life insurance policies. And it’s legal.
You don’t have to actually die to get some of your life insurance money. Thanks to a secondary market for life insurance policies, you might be able to claw back money from beyond the grave. You just sell your policy to an investor. So when you die, the payout goes to them, instead of your family or beneficiary.
On today’s show, how the wheels of finance transformed a desperate deal made during the AIDS crisis into a multi-billion dollar industry.
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