Creativity requires overcoming traditional mental sets.
A traditional mental set is a conventional way of looking at things and placing them in familiar categories. One traditional mental set is that the only way for people to obtain the death benefit on their life insurance policy is to die. Several years ago an investor initiated the concept of viatical settlement, in which a person with a terminal illness sells his or her policy to an investor for about 80 percent of the policy value. When the person dies, the investor receives the death benefit from the insurance company. The sooner the person dies, the better the return on the investment (for the person who buys the policy from the ailing or aging person). Viatical settlements grew out of the AIDS epidemic, as many young people with no dependents and meager savings were faced with overwhelming medical bills. Today the concept has been extended to cancer patients and nursing home residents who prefer to cash in life insurance policies rather than cash in other assets. In the present form of viatical settlements, sellers and buyers are matched by a "living benefits” broker.