# You bet your life insurance

An episode of [Planet Money](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/290783428), 14 Aug 2026, 39 min.

Audio: https://tracking.swap.fm/track/XvDEoI11TR00olTUO8US/prfx.byspotify.com/e/play.podtrac.com/npr-510289/npr.simplecastaudio.com/43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337/episodes/e643843c-4f2c-43dc-89fc-64f70e7ff656/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337&awEpisodeId=e643843c-4f2c-43dc-89fc-64f70e7ff656&feed=hvWWWzRv&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5885879&p=510289&d=2323&size=37172958

Some 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. Support: • Planet Money+ Read: • Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life • Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter • Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter Follow: • Instagram • TikTok • YouTube • Facebook This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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