life insurance policies

Federal securities regulators filed suit Tuesday against a Texas-based provider of so-called "life settlements," accusing it and three top executives of defrauding shareholders by overvaluing the life insurance policies it buys from its customers.

excerpt: ""The geniuses of Wall Street have decided that the next big thing is betting on death. Yes, Wall Street will be rooting for sick people to die right away, at least as soon as the dying sell them their life insurance policies.

After the mortgage business imploded last year, investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one: bundling life insurance policies.

Wall Street bankers plan to buy life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash and package hundreds or thousands of them together into bonds.