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Argued June 3, 2009; decided June 30, 2009
People v Coventry First LLC, 52 AD3d 345, affirmed.
{**13 NY3d at 111} OPINION OF THE COURT
Pigott, J.
In recent years, an industry has developed in the United States in which investors, [*2]known as life settlement providers, buy life insurance policies from policy owners for cash, ultimately receiving the benefits of the policies when the insureds die. An example will illustrate the type of transaction involved. A company that holds a policy insuring the life of an executive who has retired wishes to sell the policy, to avoid paying premiums. A life settlement provider buys the life insurance policy from the company, for an amount exceeding the surrender value offered by the insurer, calculating that the value of the death benefits exceeds the purchase price, transaction costs,
and continued premiums.[FN*]
Importantly, the life settlement industry purports to employ a competitive auction model. The policy owner

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New York Law