Occupation Life settlement Employer The Lifeline Program | Name William Page | |
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Born 14 November 1963 (age 60) ( 1963-11-14 ) Baltimore, Maryland Residence Atlanta, Georgia, United States | ||
William Scott Page is an American businessman and the founder and CEO of The Lifeline Program, a life settlement provider based in Atlanta, Georgia. Page founded Lifeline in 1989, making him an originator of the life insurance settlement industry. He is a former president of the National Viatical Association, now known as the Life Insurance Settlement Association.
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Life settlement business
Page served in the United States Air Force from 1984 to 1988, during which time he led a program supporting soldiers with HIV and AIDS. Shortly after leaving the Air Force, he used his experience as a counselor to help a friend who had been diagnosed with AIDS to make financial plans. His friend was unable to afford medical treatment for AIDS, but had a substantial life insurance policy; Page recommended that his friend take a loan to pay for his health care, using the beneficiary rights of his life insurance policy as collateral. In this way, the friend was able to effectively sell the policy and use its value to pay for his medical needs.
Inspired by the experience, Page founded a Cleveland-based viatical settlement company in 1989 called Wm. Page & Associates, which operated under the name The Lifeline Program. The company relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1994 to work with the area's large population of HIV/AIDS patients. Page later moved the company to the Atlanta region.
In 1999, Page contributed to a state and federal criminal investigation into potentially fraudulent practices by another viatical settlement business in Florida. The firm under investigation had purchased life insurance policies from Page & Associates but was unwilling to share any details of its own operations with Page, which led him to suspect wrongdoing. Page eventually gave testimony that contributed to the head of the other firm's conviction of fraud.
Other activities
Since 2011, Page has authored a guest blog for The Huffington Post, where he writes about life settlements and financial issues facing seniors and baby boomers. Since 2012 he has appeared frequently on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co., a business news talk show, as a guest expert on insurance and life settlement issues. He has also been interviewed as an insurance settlement industry expert by the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and others.