Life Settlement & Viatical Settlement Information

What is a Life Settlement?

A Life Settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy that results in a cash payment to the policyholder larger than the cash surrender value of the policy.

How does a life settlement work?

Life Settlements are cash payments made to people who sell their life insurance for a percentage of the death benefit. There are investors who want to buy life insurance policies in order to balance out their investment portfolio's. These investors are willing to pay much more for a life policy than the insurance company offers as the "surrender value"; on average 3 - 4 times as much. This can mean the difference between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to you.

Why would someone want a Life Settlement?

How are seniors going to pay for their living expenses if the government or their family cannot help?

There is an additional choice for seniors with life insurance policies. Insurance policy holders have more choices than they think, let me explain.

Seniors are being handed bills for health care and living expenses that they may not be able to pay or be able to cope with alone. And with the government (federal, state and local) carrying the largest debt in history and the American consumer in equal pain, it appears seniors are having to cope with their financial problems on their own.

Many seniors have started considering new sources of income because of the changing living situations they have to consider. They are moving into Complete Communities Retirement Centers (CCRC’s), Retirement Centers, Assisted Living Homes, Residential Care Homes, Nursing / Rehab Centers and even Alzheimer Centers while having to pay prescription drug costs, and simply having to handle daily living expenses alone.

They do however; have a resource if they own a Life Insurance policy. A new secondary market exists for those individuals who may want to use their life insurance policy OR who do not need their policies anymore. The type of policies that can be used for this secondary market are; Whole, Universal, Variable, Term and Annuities.

Life Insurance is an asset just like a home, stocks, real estate, etc. There is build up value in these policies that people have been paying their premium on for the past 20 years. In the past any time an owner lapsed or surrendered a life insurance policy, they are giving up the built up value in that policy. And in actuality they were selling it back to the insurance carrier, who now does not need to pay out any monies.

There exists a better choice for life insurance policy owners today. It is called Senior Life Settlements.

Life Settlements is the purchasing of life insurance policies from seniors (> 65 years old) above and beyond what their cash value is estimated at from their insurance company. Typically an individual can collect one to five times more than their policy’s cash value. This higher price is what’s called the policy’s true market value.

Life Settlements can be an option for trusts, corporations and individuals. Typically individuals who benefit from this option are policy holders that have poorly performing policies, thinly funded policies, changing estate tax issues, or need cash for long term care.

The first step is to get an appraisal done by a funding source. Luckily this costs the policy owner nothing and there is no obligation. If you are curious about what your policy is worth or you are looking for additional cash please click here and complete the policy estimator form.

Viaticals & Life Settlements - The financial benefits to policy owners are far too great to be ignored:

• Lump-sum cash settlements that exceed the cash surrender value when a policy is unwanted, unneeded, or has become a financial burden;

• Profits realized from term policies that would have otherwise lapsed due to high conversion costs;

• Cash infusion when income is limited, relieving financial stress and providing further medical options, when otherwise impossible;

• Capital generated from a poorly performing policy to fund joint survivor coverage, long-term care insurance, or other investments.