When the AIDS epidemic emerged in the 1980s, many terminally ill life insurance policyholders sought viatical settlements. In a viatical settlement, a terminally ill policyholder sells his/her life insurance policy to investors, generally through a viatical broker, for a lump-sum settlement that’s lower than the policy’s face value. The investor then pays the premiums and receives the death benefit when the insured (now called a “viator”) dies...[363 word article, December 2009]