In this post, we look at whether COVID-19 has had an impact on the number of obituaries being reported, as they are a critical source of death data. Note that the charts in this post are interactive. PBI Research Services , a subsidiary of Longevity Holdings LLC , is a national leader in death auditing and mortality tracking. Their mortality data is captured from [...]
It is now widely accepted that COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) will have a broad, lasting impact around the globe, and in the U.S. in particular. The magnitude of that impact is still unknown, but that there will be a measurable impact has become indisputable. The life settlements population represents a unique cohort of individuals who may experience greater vulnerability to COVID-19 than the broader [...]
In October of last year, we reported on a settlement in the case against Transamerica for a cost of insurance (COI) increase, which raised the carrying costs on a group of universal life policies by 200% or more. In one example, we reported the cost to maturity on one policy in our portfolio jumped from $36,400 to $81,595, after the policy got hit with a [...]
Over the years, the life settlement industry has had its ups and downs. During its heyday in 2007 and 2008, consumers sold $12 billion in life insurance death benefits to investors in the secondary market. But the economic downturn dried up investor money, and as late as 2015, just $1.7 billion in death benefits changed hands. (1) For many years, life insurance provided just two [...]
A bill introduced in Congress could help spur sales of life insurance in the secondary market by allowing policyholders to use the proceeds from the sale of a life insurance policy to fund an account to be used for paying long-term care expenses on a tax-favored basis. HR Bill 7203, introduced by U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins [...]
In 2013, we wrote about the sale of Lincoln Benefit Life, an Allstate company, to Resolution Life Holdings, Inc. It was the first purchase in the States for the UK company, run by British entrepreneur, Clive Chowdry, whose ambition, according to the Financial Times, was to “buy up and roll together a number of life assurance businesses and to run them for cash instead of [...]
This week our New York City office received letters from Phoenix alerting us to cost of insurance (COI) increases on Accumulator (I, II, III, and IV) and Estate Legacy Universal Life policies. Per the carrier, the cost increase was necessary because “certain anticipated experience factors are now less favorable than we anticipated when we established the cost of insurance rate schedule.” According to the letters [...]
It is estimated that every year, seniors in the US surrender or lapse over $112 billion dollars in life insurance death benefits (1). Most of them probably have no idea of their options, but grow tired of the premium payments and walk away without maximizing the value of an asset they may have paid for over a lifetime. For the uninformed consumer, this could be [...]
As we end 2014 I wanted to post some observations from the past year. The TOLI business is not growing, at least not significantly. We are still feeling the estate tax filing threshold jump to an indexed $5M. As the number of prospects drops, so does the number of new clients. Yes, there are reasons other than estate taxes to hold a policy in a [...]
An interesting class action lawsuit filed in January of this year is unfolding in California. The case, Larry Grill et al v. Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, was brought against the insurance carrier for “concealing from its insureds the option of a life settlement in connection with their life insurance policies.” In an all too common scenario (which I am sure you have seen), the [...]
