The Wall Street Journal has article on the exploits of the late New York Attorney Arthur Kramer, who purchased large life insurance policies and then immediately sold the right to benefit from them to investors.  Under normal circumstances, the government would have an interest in not allowing investors to benefit from the death of people they don’t particularly have reason to care about.  However selling a policy to investors after the fact is common.  People treat life insurance like an asset, chiefly because it is one.

When it comes to Muslims, life insurance is fairly complex.  Many scholars regard insurance as is sold in the United States as prohibited no matter who the beneficiary, as the insurance benefit frequently includes riba and gharar.  Muslim countries do have “Sharia’h Compliant” life insurance available, known as takaful, generally not available to Americans.  Some have found no harm in life insurance though since the asset is paid out at death, it should be distributed based on the Islamic Rules of Inheritance.