The ability of poz men to obtain life insurance and the lingering effects of viatical settlement payouts......

[ellentonboy]

1 hour ago, TheSRQDude said:

Anytime. You can tell me a lot more about certain things 😉 and all I can do is explain what I know about others.  Tons of things I know I can learn from you about your experiences.

Think of how insurance companies work in the simplest possible manner: Your auto policy. If you have an accident, generally your rates increase because they infer you're an accident-prone driver, regardless of you being at fault. If you don't like that, you shop for a new policy and...oh, the new insurance company knows you had an accident? How'd they know that? They share data. No surprise there. There are petabytes of information about each one of us. And...oh, we expanded that willingly on platforms like Facebook by telling them what we watch, what we like, what we buy, who we support politically, what music we prefer, even how we'll respond to certain stories and the results are a gold mine to companies who want that data or media companies that want to capitalize on that.

No. That's not being paranoid or conspiracy theorist.

I appreciated the feedback.  I was warned around 1999 or 2000 to start selling any policies I had left, and this came from my contact at a particular vatical settlement company that I used to sell individual policies I was able to purchase.   He said it was a dying (no pun intended) industry and to sell and get out now.   Those were the ones I was somewhat uncomfortable doing because of the legality issues.  When it came to a policy issued because of a benefit offered to me by an employer, I had no worries.  From 1996 to 2002 the percentage of the money offered on my policies went down significantly.  Investors were catching on that people were living longer, so they knew they were on the hook to pay the premiums.   I mean, what is the chance of some twenty something suddenly dying?  Well, if you saw my labs back then you might think there was a possibility  The majority of those vatical companies are out of business now.  However, the large FEGLI policies (Federal Employee Group Life Insurance) have a company that keeps track of me quarterly.  I'm not surprised it came to an end,  I never misrepresented my health, but the middle man often made my situation sound more dire.  In the case of the FEGLI - even selling the policy back to the government was considered a "benefit".  I actually left once, cashed out, and had another government agency hire me.  All because I knew I could get a huge payout.  The other policies were chump change - not to say I wouldn't jump at a chance to get that "chump change" again.  I was called out by one insurance company employee who asked why I was so persistent on finding out if a policy had been converted to an individual policy.  She bluntly asked, "why do you care, do you have plans to sell it?"  They knew back then,  but I was surprised when something like a $10,000 policy application would be rejected and there would be information for me to contact to find out exactly why they said no, and what information was provided.  I am tempted to apply to another insurance company, but I don't want to lie on an application and then later be charged with attempted fraud.  I know the likely chance of that happening would be small, but I don't want my signature on something I know is absolutely false.

I am glad I went this route and thought BZ was a great way to get feedback, and ultimately, the answer I expected.  I know I can't be the only guy on this Forum who received a vatical settlement, I think I am just one of the few willing to discuss it.  I didn't commit fraud, but I am sure some might frown on my behavior - such as changing employers.  But then again, this is BZ, so who are they to judge??? lol

I didn't think you were a conspiracy theorist or paranoid, obviously you work or have worked in the insurance business, or you have had experience dealing with them.  Facebook to me, personally, is the anti-Christ.  I mean, I must have tried to terminate my profile ten years ago, but I get calls from relatives telling me they have seen my picture and profile back up on Facebook, thanks to hackers.  Instead of saying  "Attended University XYZ". they say "May have attended University XYZ".    Even with my previous government employers, they usually call out the one that I had the most years working for.  However they always use the "May have worked for the Department of.....".  It never stops with Facebook, but that is content for another thread.  Take care!

[BannedWord]

1 hour ago, ErosWired said:

@TheSRQDude - I wouldn’t begin to question your first-hand experience of the industry, as it is obviously not my field. But nothing that you have told us here contradicts the underlying fact that the entire industry is dependent upon the vagaries of luck on both the micro level (car wrecks) and the macro level (hurricanes). They may not make their profit from the individual payout, but their ability to invest is similarly keyed to the vagaries of fortune, or there would be no reason for a variation in premium dependent on risk.

Regardless of the nuts and bolts, the business of the insurance industry is risk, and risk, by definition, is a gamble. So it is small wonder, touching on the OP’s concern, that insurance companies will take any measure available to hedge that risk - if there is an opportunity to do so, one would be naïve to assume that they have not.

@ErosWired - I had this long answer composed that roughly decomposed the individual components on risk pricing, or why a 'certain percentage' is luck and other pieces of it resolve back to actuarial sciences, statistics, hedging strategies and mitigation or costs inherent in acceptance when risk avoidance isn't feasible.

Bottom-line: You're not wrong.

Here's what I'd say: It's not all "luck" though a good portion is. For the OP's concern, it's a matter of an industry looking at loss experience and deciding that rejecting a policy is probably a wise financial decision. They wouldn't want to bet on the same person dying twice, and he's still alive after the first payout. On the other side of it, check out Andrew Ross Sorkin's book "Too Big To Fail" to read the background on AIG and how supremely they fucked up Credit Default Swaps by not following basic risk management.