It's an investment opportunity that has been around for nearly 20 years. It's a market that is worth more than $32 billion, according to a study conducted by Conning, Inc. It's one of the rare products that offers low risks and the possibility of high returns.
And it's still considered a "new" and "alternative" investment opportunity by many.
Yes, it is life settlement investing.
Many Americans are unfamiliar with the concept of investing in life settlements, but they shouldn't be--and likely won't be for long if recent trends hold up.
Life settlements were first introduced in the United States in the 1990s, when the first innovative investors saw an opportunity to purchase unwanted, unneeded or unaffordable life insurance policies from seniors.
The investors purchased life insurance policies from individuals for an amount above the surrender cash value and then when the policy came due--when the policy holder passed away--the investors received the death benefit.
The product made a good deal of sense for both the policy holders and the investors.
After all, many policy holders were simply letting their policies lapse. According to some estimates more than $1 billion of life insurance benefits goes unclaimed each year. The reasons for the lapses vary, but some people living on fixed incomes could no longer afford the premiums, others simply decided they no longer needed the policy.
So why not sell the policy to an investor for a significant amount of cash?
That's exactly what policy holders decided to do.
Investing in life settlements made a lot of financial sense for those innovators who decided to purchase policies, too.
They were guaranteed a payout that would not be subject to the ups and downs of the stock market, oil prices, real estate values, government regulations or international turmoil. In fact, the only risk associated with life settlements was time--the longer the original policy holder lived, the longer the investor would have to make the monthly premium payments.
But even the "time factor" didn't get in the way of creating a cottage industry that has since grown to be one of the best investment opportunities out there.
Financial managers quickly became quite savvy at identifying policy holders who had expectancies that were relatively short (typically less than 20 years) and who were willing to sell their life insurance policies.
This greatly reduced the risk to the investors. Then they found groups of investors who often pooled their money to purchase several policies, thus further reducing the risk.
It's easy to see why the life settlement industry took off and continues to grow.
What's not so easy to understand is why more investors are not aware of this "new" and "alternative" method of maximizing their investments.
Life settlements really aren't "new," but they certainly are a safer alternative to the more common forms of investing, such as the stock market, real estate and commodities.
If you haven't explored the possibility of investing in life settlements, now would be a good time to look into it as an option.
Connect with us today to learn more about investing in life settlements.
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