Viaticals

Most of us with a little bit of a financial background are familiar with the idea of viaticals: the buying out of things like life insurance policies for lump sums now.

What I wasn't familiar with was the idea that things like annuities can be bought out in the same way. Thinking about it though it seems an obvious extension of the idea. There might be someone with some lottery winnings, for example, which are commonly paid over a series of years. As circumstances change, it might be that said winner would prefer to have a lump sum now, rather than wait those years for the future payments.

If you want to know more you can visit webpages telling you more about the entire idea, even get quotes for what any future stream of payments would be worth today as a lump sum. Any annuity can be treated in this manner: I'm sure it's even possible to do it with a pension.