The life settlement market is heating up

This article was originally published on Life Health Pro (http://www.lifehealthpro.com). Published on the 17th February 2017 ,  “The Life Settlements Market is Heating Up”  and written by Robin S. Weinberger and Peter N. Katz   A number of factors have reignited the life settlement market with both consumers and investors showing rising interest. The oldest […]

Conning Review: Seeking above average rate of return

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The life settlements market size looks promising.  The latest Conning Inc. research, “Life Settlements, Secondary Annuities, and Structured Settlements: Rate Increases Squeeze Returns”, suggest plenty more opportunities still exist in the life settlements market. The alternative asset class continued to attract investors into the market in 2015 and heading into 2016. Why? Because the prolonged […]

Poor Early Performance? It’s not the end of the world

What if the fund had a poor performance to date, what then? To begin, let’s examine some insightful statistics for our open-ended Irish regulated investment structure.  The fund holds a pool of “seasoned” policies.  Below, we have included the most current age spread for the GIS General Fund with policies awaiting maturity. Notably, a significant […]

Get to Know Your Fund Manager

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Both the fund manager and the investor can find the secondary life insurance market an irate beast. We see this in the litter of negative headlines exposing illegal behaviour and incompetence of some managers. But as the industry grows and matures we see investors succeed and those fund managers prolonging their existence. A successful fund […]

Investing During Stock Market Instability

The current stock market instability, witnessed in China, has hit investor confidence hard. Further, some analysts are warning that the region should expect more volatility.[1] What happens if China and its surrounding neighbours remain the epicentre of the current stock market instability? One thing is certain, investors need to focus their asset allocation toward adding […]

Dilemmas in Valuation Life Settlements

Have you ever wondered why so many life settlements funds vary in expected returns? During your due diligence have you found it difficult to compare returns of what appears on the surface to be apparently similar life settlements funds? Life settlements valuation risks are possibly one of the key administrative dilemmas facing the asset class […]

Estimating Gross Market Return for Life Settlements

Gross Market Return

Establishing the correct methodology in estimating gross market return is a common discussion for the life settlements asset class. The science around medical underwriting continues to evolve in the dynamic environment of human longevity. The discussion around appropriate methodologies for uniform financial analysis is timely, post GFC environment. Given the lack of suitable robust analysis […]

Portfolio Construction and Management

Portfolio Construction

Life settlements portfolio construction and asset management go hand in hand for a positive ROI. The big question is why are many new investors “going it alone”. Most importantly why are they not considering in their asset allocation strategy an already established fund? With news filtering in regarding some struggling life settlements funds, we sit […]

Complexities of a Self-Managed Life Settlements Portfolio

Do the benefits of a self-managed life settlements portfolio truly outweigh the complexities faced in the life settlements market? Asset managers play a crucial role in the continual development and success of this unique asset class. Managers, who have successfully navigated the complexities of this market, manage efficient funds providing attractive uncorrelated returns for many […]

Looking into the Life Settlements Benchmark/Index

Gross Market Return

Is it possible to have a life settlements benchmark? In all asset classes, we look where possible to have access to an industry-wide benchmark/index to assess performance and compare themselves with their peers. Clearly this is a good thing when available. The trap for the uninformed or novice investor is to distinguish between true bench-marking […]