Unlocking Value- ESG Metrics and Life Settlements

Can ESG metrics be used to identify material risks and growth opportunities in the life settlements market?  The adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing continues to accelerate as more investors seek out investments that reflect their humanitarian, ethical, environmental, and social values. Investors are increasingly applying these non-financial factors as part of their analysis […]

How Life Settlements Mortality Estimates Impacted Our Portfolio

Life Settlements Mortality Estimates

Now that some time has passed, we would like to discuss how the life settlements mortality estimates impacted our portfolio. You can review our past post where we discuss the impact of the updated mortality tables on the market. We view the mortality table updates as a valuable improvement to the industry overall. However, time […]

5 Risks Unique to Life Settlements

Risk is a feature in any investment decision. There are risks that you can quantify and manage or mitigate and there are those that you cannot. First-time investors in life settlements are often not aware of the unique risks and opportunities only present in life settlements. It is reasonable to conclude that life settlements aren’t […]

Traded Life Policy Investments

To combat the relative illiquidity of the life settlement market, some investors are searching for the holy grail of a centralised traded life policy platform. Lack of liquidity is one of the key disincentives for investors new to the market. With historical volatility in traditional investments, a limited liquidity market makes some institutional investors uneasy. […]

6 Reasons to Invest in Life Settlements

Reasons to invest in life settlements

There are plenty of reasons to invest in life settlements. This alternative investment has developed due to a unique necessity. In fact, it has caused a positive impact for both institutional investors and the insured individual. The prolonged low-interest-rate environment is forcing investors to embark on paths away from traditional assets as they seek a […]

Performance Cycle in a Life Settlements Portfolio

Gross Market Return

Understanding the life settlements performance cycle is the key to a successful investment campaign. From a manager’s perspective, this is also vital in managing client expectations. Although the asset has many non-traditional investment features it still does operates within a “cycle” of sorts. Like any asset class, life settlements provide certain potential excess return opportunities […]

Don’t fake it! Show the real returns

It seems that fake news has been a hot topic lately. Even the life settlements market isn’t immune. We sometimes see published returns that seem too good to be true. We fear that some of these rely on valuation assumptions rather than actual realised returns. Headlines that report solely positive or smooth regular returns are […]

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 […]

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 […]