The life settlement industry was born in 1911 when Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and his fellow justices ruled that life insurance is private property and can be legally assigned by its owner. The decision came from a lengthy battle that began when John C. Burchard sold his life insurance policy for $100 to his doctor, Dr. Grigsby, and Dr. Grigsby agreed to assume the remainder of the premium payments (that were overdue already) in exchange for the death benefit. After Burchard’s passing a year later, the executor of this estate contested this transaction, and that’s when the case was brought before the highest court.
After the recession in 2008, more laws to protect policyholders, investors and insurance companies have been put into place, making the industry one of the most well-regulated and transparent financial transactions in the country, and ever more appealing to policyholders and investors alike. In fact, more regulations sparked an increase in life settlement activity.
Currently, forty-three states and Puerto Rico now regulate these transactions, and an estimated 90% of the entire US population is protected by comprehensive life settlement laws and regulations, which tend to focus on these top three protections:
Recent Posts
A 2017 report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Long-Term Care Subgroup includes life settlements among three options for paying for long-term care.
If you’re like most people, you bought your life insurance policy because you wanted to take care of your family.
Over the past few years, we’ve found that life settlements have gradually been moving more into the mainstream financial world. As we meet with advisors, we find that many more know about this secondary market solution than was true in the past.
