agents submitted life insurance applications on the lives of the elderly persons, and the applications contained inflated net worth information. Insurers then issued insurance policies worth millions of dollars. The elderly persons then sold or attempted to sell the policies after the two-year contestability period had expired. The insurance premiums were either paid by the insurance agents with the commissions they earned on the policies or by third party investors. Some of the insureds were paid monthly for their cooperation, while others were promised part of the profit when their policies were sold. The former wife of one of the insurance agents was charged with extortion for threatening to go to the police unless she was paid to keep quiet. She was paid $10,000. Canada The trafficking of life insurance products is illegal in many Canadian provinces (the anti-trafficking provision was never enacted in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, while Quebec repealed it in 1974). At least one large Canadian insurer warns agents not to sell policies if the intent of the policyholder is to sell or immediately assign the policy to an unrelated third party with a non-insurable interest (other than a bank, used as collateral for a loan). United Kingdom The Life Assurance Act 1774 made such practices illegal. At the time, they were used for gambling. The Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom has warned its regulated firms against selling or marketing traded U.S. life insurance policies investments (TPLIs) as they are "high risk, toxic products", calling them highly problematic and advised UK investment firms to steer clear of them. See also Life settlement Corporate-owned life insurance References Investment Life insurance Insurance in the United States