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Could 2011 Be the Year of the Life Settlement?
Agent
's Sales Journal, February 28, 2011
Our modern life settlement industry is just a little more than a decade old, but its roots date back to the early 20th century: The 1911 U.S. Supreme Court case Grigsby v. Russell ruled that life insurance policies were an asset and, like all assets, were freely assignable for value.
This didn't have much of a visible effect on the insurance industry until the late 1980s, however, when viatical settlements - the sale of a life insurance policy by a terminally ill client - launched in response to the growing AIDS epidemic. From these settlements, a secondary market emerged. Over the next few years, it grew to include life settlements, an offshoot of viaticals that met the needs of a different type of consumer: those who no longer needed their life insurance policies. Continue...
Debunking the Life Settlement Myths
Agent's Sales Journal, February 28, 2011
Like any other transactions you oversee, life settlements are designed to protect and maximize the resources of the policyholder. Unfortunately, and often unfairly, negative PR and a lack of understanding about this important financial tool have turned it into the black sheep of the insurance product family over the years. In reality, life settlements are too useful to ignore, and you may be doing your senior clients a great disservice if you do not have this product in your business portfolio. More...
How to Drive Client Awareness of the Life Settlement Option
Agent's Sales Journal, February 28, 2011
In the Agent Media/LISA 2011 Life Settlement Market Study, nearly 25 percent of agents said that greater consumer awareness of life settlements would help them foster more settlement opportunities.
So, how can agents best promote this awareness?
- Maintain your own knowledge of settlements.
- Consider partnering with a settlement provider or settlement veteran.
- Take settlement news developments as an opportunity to communicate with your clients.
- Realize the importance of communicating the safety - for all parties involved - that comes with an increasingly regulated industry.
- Make settlements part of your initial and ongoing client discussions about life insurance; when clients know more about future opportunities and benefits, your job becomes much easier. Continue reading...
The Taxation of Life Settlements Explained
Investment Week, February 8, 2011
The promise of consistent returns, which are not correlated to traditional markets, has propelled life settlements in to being a mainstream investment class.
The seemingly straightforward investment strategy of buying an insurance policy on the second hand market at a discount, keeping it in force until the demise of the insured and collecting on the face value, is attractive and investors and their financial advisers rarely delve deeper into the many complexities. Read more... | 
Last month, I spotlighted how the life settlement industry has been seeing a recovery in the past two quarters - mainly due to the return of capital and funding sources that was missing during the economic downturn.
