Cashing Out

Directed by Matt Nadel

During the height of the AIDS crisis, many gay men sold their life insurance policies to investors for immediate financial relief. What followed was the rise of a controversial industry built on profit from tragedy, exposing the exploitation that emerged from a community’s desperation.
Cashing Out takes one of the ugliest ironies of the AIDS crisis and refuses to simplify it. Matt Nadel’s documentary short film examines viatical settlements, where terminally ill people sold life-insurance policies for immediate cash while investors profited from early death. The director’s own family connection prevents easy moral distance, and that complication is exactly what gives the film its force.

Cashing Out

Directed by Matt Nadel

During the height of the AIDS crisis, many gay men sold their life insurance policies to investors for immediate financial relief. What followed was the rise of a controversial industry built on profit from tragedy, exposing the exploitation that emerged from a community’s desperation.

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Cashing Out takes one of the ugliest ironies of the AIDS crisis and refuses to simplify it. Matt Nadel’s documentary short film examines viatical settlements, where terminally ill people sold life-insurance policies for immediate cash while investors profited from early death. The director’s own family connection prevents easy moral distance, and that complication is exactly what gives the film its force.

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