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Regulating Viatical Settlements: Is The Invisible Hand Picking The Pockets Of The Terminally Ill?, Russell J. Herron
Regulating Viatical Settlements: Is The Invisible Hand Picking The Pockets Of The Terminally Ill?, Russell J. Herron
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The newly emerging viatical settlement industry has attracted considerable attention from both insurance regulators and advocates for the terminally ill. In a viatical settlement, a terminally ill person names a viatical settlement company as beneficiary under his life insurance policy in exchange for an immediate lump-sum cash payment of less than face value of the policy. To date, viatical settlement payments to people with AIDS (PWAs) have been disturbingly low as a percentage of the face value of PWA policies. This Note examines the few enacted viatical settlement regulations and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' model regulations as they …
A Reasonable Approach To The Doctrine Of Reasonable Expectations As Applied To Insurance Contracts, Karen K. Shinevar
A Reasonable Approach To The Doctrine Of Reasonable Expectations As Applied To Insurance Contracts, Karen K. Shinevar
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this article examines standard insurance contract analysis and the existing confusion within that analysis. Part II examines the doctrine of reasonable expectations. In Part Ill, Professor Keeton's expansion of the reasonable expectations doctrine is explained and analyzed. This article concludes in Part IV that Keeton's expanded doctrine has the effect of confusing most courts, which continue to discuss reasonable expectations in relation to conventional rules of contract construction. The article proposes that the reasonable expectations doctrine be limited to contractual language and surrounding circumstances in order to establish clearer guidelines for insurers and consumers.