Like most other states, California has experienced a spike in stranger-originated life insurance transactions, a relatively recent and emerging phenomenon commonly known as “STOLI.” As the name suggests, STOLI transactions are initiated by a third-party investor who does not have an insurable interest in the insured’s life. The policy’s premiums are funded by the investor, and the insured – usually a wealthy and elderly individual – receives a large cash payment up front in exchange for an agreement to transfer full ownership of the policy to the investor within a short period of time after the policy’s issuance or, in some cases, at the expiration of the policy’s two-year contestability period.

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