Cashing Out documentary probes viatical settlements during the Aids crisis

Matt Nadel’s Oscar‑shortlisted short documentary Cashing Out traces a little‑known cottage industry that bought life‑insurance policies from people dying of Aids, a practice Nadel was confronted with after his father told him he had invested in such “viatical settlements.” The film grew out of a revelation Nadel received during the summer of 2020 while back home in Boca Raton.

His father, Phil, explained he had bought life insurance policies from people with weeks or months to live in exchange for a portion of the policy’s value in cash. For some policyholders the advances paid food, rent and hospital bills; for others they enabled travel or experiences in their final months.

Cashing Out follows personal stories, including Scott Page’s arrangement to sell his partner Greg’s policy so Greg could live more comfortably in his last months. Page later became a viatical broker. The film also foregrounds voices such as DeeDee Chamblee, who says many Black trans women could not access life insurance and so never had that option: “I could go to the beach, and I could stay there until this thing is through,” she recalls, adding that was not a reality.

Nadel presents both the help viaticals delivered and the moral discomfort they provoked. By the late 1990s, advances in antiretroviral therapy meant many people lived far longer than investors had expected, undermining the investment model.

Key Topics

Culture, Cashing Out, Matt Nadel, Viatical Settlements, Hiv/aids, Deedee Chamblee