The biggest barrier to adopting viager in a market with no track record is the legitimate fear that the buyer might one day stop paying. Our insurance partnership exists precisely to remove that risk.
If a payment default persists beyond a grace period, the insurance mechanism steps in to secure your annuity payments, alongside the legal remedies (termination clause, seller's lien) pursued against the defaulting buyer.
This is not a minor add-on: it is the piece that makes the product acceptable to older sellers, many of whom have had no other safety net since the 2019 banking crisis.
The premium is built line by line (pure risk, management costs, brokerage margin) rather than applied as a flat rate — so that the insurer, the platform and investors can see exactly what it funds.
Given the weakening of the Lebanese insurance sector since 2019, an international reinsurance structure is recommended to carry a long-duration guarantee line with no local precedent.
A second consecutive missed monthly payment, monitored directly on the Whish account used for the annuity, triggers the insurance: it settles the two missed months and takes over payment of the annuity from that point on.
After nine months of default, formal notice and non-repayment, the insurance company is subrogated into the rights of the buyer of the viager.
The premium — around 4.5% of the annual annuity — is paid by the buyer, on top of their annuity. It is never deducted from what the seller receives, and appears in full in every simulation, alongside the bouquet and the annuity.
On top of the non-payment guarantee above — always included — the buyer can switch on, per property, two optional coverages that work in their favor. Both are shown, with their indicative cost, directly on each property's listing page.
Standard Lebanese home insurance (fire, theft, liability) does not include this risk by default — it's sold separately, by a limited number of insurers. Indicative premium: 2% of the property's value per year, at the low end of the market range observed for this type of coverage on an ordinary residential property (source: Executive Magazine, which puts the general range at 1%–10% of insured value depending on risk profile).
A declining-balance life insurance policy on the buyer, structured like the ones Lebanese banks already require on property loans: if the buyer dies while the annuity is still owed, it continues to be paid to the seller without interruption, and the buyer's heirs inherit neither the obligation nor the risk of losing the position through default. Indicative premium: 0.6% of the capitalised annuity per year — a market assumption, since no public rate card exists for this kind of product in Lebanon (Lebanese insurers underwrite life insurance case by case, based on the insured's age and health). The final rate will be confirmed at actual underwriting.