The same blind spots that decide a lawsuit decide who gets exploited — and who gets protected.
Three decades ago, I helped open a door: a way for people dying of AIDS to sell their life insurance policies and meet the end of their lives with cash, choice, and dignity. I’ve spent my career since making sure this industry serves the people who need it most — not the ones looking to exploit them.
I’m the central subject of Cashing Out, the Oscar-shortlisted New Yorker documentary on the viatical settlement industry that emerged during the AIDS crisis. When my own partner was dying, I helped broker one of the first sales of a life insurance policy by a person with AIDS — and went on to build one of the first gay-owned and operated settlement companies. The Life Insurance Settlement Association served as an executive producer on the film. When a story broke in this industry, I was often the person reporters and families turned to.
Helping seniors and families recognize and resist the exploitation that hides inside complex financial products — before it costs them what they can’t get back.
Pushing for the disclosure, oversight, and standards that would have prevented the abuses I’ve spent decades documenting from the inside.
Partnering to keep memory and accountability alive — and to connect financial justice to the protection of the communities hit hardest.
Financial protection isn’t a niche issue. It’s whether the most vulnerable people are treated as customers to serve — or marks to exploit.
Start with Cashing Out — the Oscar-shortlisted documentary on how this industry began, and the people who lived it.
Watch “Cashing Out”