While companies across the financial services industry were taking a beating last year, a firm in Waco, Tex., with a less than cheery way of making money was boosting its profit by 46 percent.

Its niche: helping investors place bets on when people will die.

The firm, Life Partners Holdings, helps investors buy life insurance policies from people who no longer want or can no longer afford the coverage. The investors pay the remaining premiums and collect the eventual death benefit -- the sooner the better from their standpoint. In a recent regulatory filing, Life Partners predicted even greater interest this year.

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