If you are approached by persons whose business is buying life insurance policies from their owners, and you are contemplating selling your policy, there are a number of issues to consider before you sell:

• Your policy is likely to have features already available to you that can assist in overcoming any short term financial difficulties. We believe that New York Life offers options within our policies that, in most cases, are more favorable to our clients than what viatical companies offer. While there are some costs associated with these options, including a possible impact on the death benefit, the advantage in using these features is that your policy remains in force so that you can retain the death benefit protection to meet the needs for which you originally purchased your policy. For example, you can access policy values through loans or withdrawals if necessary. Another option is that a life insurance policy can be assigned to a bank as collateral for a loan.
  
  
• New York Life has an option available in most policies called the Living Benefits Rider (LBR). This rider, which is available at no extra cost, allows the policy to be accelerated if the insured is terminally ill, generally with a life expectancy of 12 months or less. For example, in most cases, a policyowner with a $100,000 policy can obtain approximately $85,000 from his or her policy if the LBR is exercised. This payment is tax free to the owner of the policy. New York Life has paid accelerated benefits totaling more than $25 million to date. If your policy does not contain the LBR option, you can add it to your policy now or when you may need it. If you have questions about how your policy benefits can work for you, a New York Life agent can provide assistance.
  
  
• Once you make a transfer of ownership, all ownership rights in the policy pass to the new owner permanently. Subsequent transfers of ownership can be made without your knowledge, and therefore, you may not know who owns the policy on the life of the insured. Beneficiary changes can also be made without your knowledge, and thus you may not know the identity of the beneficiary designated to receive the death benefit of your policy. This means that an investor or group of investors, who may or may not be known to you, could have a financial interest in your death.
  
  
• The viatical industry began with marketing to terminally ill individuals, but has now begun purchasing policies from healthy individuals. This viatical market is so new that there is limited current regulatory oversight of viatical companies and their practices in purchasing these policies. We believe there are substantial legal and regulatory issues associated with viaticals that are currently unresolved. Consequently, we have advised our agents to avoid this market.

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