AIDS Patient Cashes In and Lives On

To those who bet $100,000 on his quick death, Peter Baez is a viatical nightmare.

For the last two years, he has defied AIDS, surviving on just a handful of white blood cells.

And thanks to his viatication, in which investors paid him a portion of his life insurance money for the rights to the policy’s proceeds, Baez is sitting on a pile of cash.

Baez can’t help gloating. For premium payments totaling $857, he wound up with $100,000.

“They’re really not very good at it,” he said, of the viaticals’ life-expectancy forecasts.

“You go through this guilt thing at first. You know they are making money off your death,” said Baez, a 30-year-old Los Angeles lawyer. “But 99% of the time, it’s a service that a client is benefiting from more than the people who purchase the policies.”

In 1990 Baez began negotiating with three viaticals, receiving offers of $75,000, $85,000 and $100,000 before selling his $150,000 policy to the top bidder.

Immediately, he went on a spending binge: two new cars, home redecoration, college tuition for his siblings.

“Since I sold my policy, I haven’t thought about AIDS. What more can you ask for than that you forget about your disease?” he said.

The settlement led to other fortuitous events. Baez had never gone near the stock market before. But his settlement put him in a gambling mood. He plunked down $30,000 on assorted stocks, betting on their one-day rise. A year later, he had $300,000.

“Most people that I know are living longer and are happier,” he said. “That is the bottom line: Happiness creates longevity.”

Baez is getting ready to viaticate his second policy. It has a face value of $500,000. He says he’ll probably get $350,000.