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Pay to Play
Brief Description
Pay to Play is the astonishing true story of Stephen L. Keller, a brash young entrepreneur who took on the ruthless insurance industry at its most inhumane. In the shadow of the AIDS crisis, when insurers routinely denied coverage to the terminally ill, Keller saw both...
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Pay to Play
$6900
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Pay to Play tells the story of Stephen L. Keller, a bold entrepreneur who disrupts the insurance world with the viatical settlement market. His billion-dollar idea brings dignity to the dying but costs him everything. From scrappy stockbroker to fugitive abroad, Keller's memoir reveals the dark side of ambition and the American Dream.
Based on a gripping true story, Pay to Play follows Stephen L. Keller, a bold entrepreneur who revolutionized the billion-dollar viatical settlement industry, only to become a fugitive forced to confront the price of ambition, the power of legacy, and the dark edge of the American Dream.
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Description
Pay to Play is the astonishing true story of Stephen L. Keller, a brash young entrepreneur who took on the ruthless insurance industry at its most inhumane. In the shadow of the AIDS crisis, when insurers routinely denied coverage to the terminally ill, Keller saw both injustice and opportunity. He pioneered the controversial viatical settlement market, offering cash to dying policyholders in exchange for their life insurance benefits, creating a billion-dollar industry in the process.
From a drab cubicle as a stockbroker to the heights of financial innovation, Keller's rise is a portrait of raw ambition, audacious strategy, and poetic revenge against a broken system. But as his empire grows, so does the scrutiny. When political and corporate interests collide, Keller is forced to flee the country with his family, becoming both a cautionary tale and a catalyst for a global market now worth over $180 billion.
Unflinching, fast-paced, and deeply personal, Pay to Play pulls back the curtain on the dark intersection of big business, politics, and the cost of the American Dream.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9798999529954
Publisher: Storyteller Media
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 30 June 2026
Country: Australia
Imprint: Storyteller Media
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 154.0mm
Height: 233.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 320
Collections
About the Author
Stephen L. Keller is a pioneering entrepreneur, whose real-life story reads like a corporate thriller, marked by ambition, disruption, and dramatic stakes. At just 27 years old, Keller founded Kelco, a financial firm that revolutionized the life insurance market by introducing Life Settlements, a product that offered seniors over the age of 65 an unprecedented way to access their life insurance benefits. By 1998, Keller launched the first-ever securitized bundles of life insurance policies on the NYSE and captured a significant portion of the global life settlements market. His scholarship fund, the Stephen L. Keller foundation continues awarding annual scholarships supporting future entrepreneurs from his hometown of eastern Kentucky.
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