Anyone here invested in AIDS patients viaticals back in the day?

[swampwiz]

I can remember some funds that invested in these so-called viaticals - i.e., buying out an AIDS patient's life insurance settlement to that he could enjoy the cash while alive, and then collect when he died - but I remember thinking that there was a strong chance that AIDS was going to be cured or at least managed (which it did), so I avoided the temptation of the expected high rates of return.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/viatical-settlements-aids-gay-men/572044/

Scott says that in the first years after he viaticated his policy, he often received handwritten cards from the company managing his life-insurance policy. They’d include messages like Hope you’re having a wonderful birthday or Hope you’re doing well, which Scott jokingly refers to as the “Are you dead yet?” letters.

This sounds like the type of business that Tony Soprano would do well in!

[lomic]

No, but there are still plenty of firms which offer cash to the elderly, especially those with shorter life expectations due to current illness and/or family history, in exchange for their life insurance when they die. Returns appear to be pretty good, and risk is relatively limited when spread over a large pool of people. Primary risk, of course, is any sort of life extension drug cocktail or broadly effective cancer cure/vaccine.