In Progressive Move， 21st Services Forms Independent Medical Advisory Board to Study Longevity， Mortality Risk

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ — 21st Services has created its first Medical Advisory Board. The Board, which is independent of the company, is an innovative approach in the life settlement industry.

Input from the Board will help 21st Services enhance the sophistication of its underwriting model and its life expectancy estimates.

21st Services” Medical Advisory Board is made up of physicians from across the country who are experts in areas affecting mortality and longevity in older adults. The members are:

Henry Blackburn, MD Epidemiology Nancy Bohannon, MD Endocrinology Richard Bohannon, MD Oncology Chad Boult, MD Geriatric Medicine Andrew Bowman, MD Cardiology Laurie Dornbrand, MD Geriatric Medicine Elliot Francke, MD Infectious Disease Mark Rosenberg, MD Nephrology James Zeese, MD Neurology

The Medical Advisory Board”s first meeting was in October 2007. The Board will continue to meet with 21st Services at least twice a year to share information related to mortality improvements, predictors of mortality and longevity risks, comorbid medical impairments and medical advances that may impact mortality and longevity results in the future.

Charlotte Lee, MD, Medical Director of 21st Services, and Paul Kirkman, Chief Underwriting Officer of 21st Services, will coordinate the Board”s meetings.

Kirkman said, “From the beginning, our underwriting model and method were built to be continually upgraded and enhanced as new data bearing on mortality risks became available. The Medical Advisory Board will help us accelerate this process. We gain access to additional data, and we can benefit from the decades of clinical experience of each of our Board members.”

Jeanne Bailey, 21st Services Chief Marketing Officer, said, “The Medical Advisory Board”s insights will help us build our core life expectancy service, maintain our leading position in the life settlement industry and reach out to new markets where mortality and longevity risks are important considerations, such as financial planning. The formation of the Board is part of a cluster of exciting developments for 21st Services.”

21st Services provides life expectancy estimates to help funders value life insurance policies in life settlement transactions. The company also offers post-purchase portfolio management services for the life settlement market. The company”s headquarters are in Minneapolis, MN.

Dutch pension company Cordares invests in the US secondary insurance market

This is the pension provider’s first investment in the US life settlement market.Â

LONDON (Thomson IM) – Cordares, the pension provider in charge of 26.5 bln eur of
assets of five pension schemes including the construction and social housing sector,
has become one of the first Dutch providers to make an allocation to the US life
settlement market.

Cordares, the company in merger talks with ABP, has made the investment on behalf of
one of its main pension scheme clients.

This portfolio has provided funds for the new life settlements investment, which was made in the second quarter of the year, following the example of the the pension fund for the metal industry, PME, which last year invested about 400 mln eur to this emerging asset class.

A life settlement is a financial transaction in which a policy-owner can sell an unwanted life insurance policy to a third party for more than the cash value offered by the life insurance company.

The buyer becomes the new beneficiary of the policy at maturation but is responsible for all subsequent premium payments.

A four-strong team at Cordares spent 18 months studying the market before deciding
on the investment, Remco Zomer, the life settlement portfolio manager at Cordares,
told Thomson Investment Management News.

Zomer declined to disclose the amount of the investment but said he expected the
investment would yield a return of a round 8 pct a year.

Remco said Cordares saw it as a mortality-pool investment, leveraging its knowledge
of longevity risk.

Remco is also among the Cordares staff currently advising Dutch and international pension schemes interested in life settlement investments. Cordares offers both advisory and asset management services to potential investors in the new asset class.

Aside from life settlements, most Cordares’ clients invest in other alternative classes including infrastructure and hedge funds and commit between 2 pct and 10 pct.

Source: Cecilia ValenteÂ

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The study also suggests that organizations expect an increase in email marketing (77 percent), followed by direct mail (75 percent), telemarketing (59 percent), and event sponsorship (48 percent).
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Boston Ventures has completed three acquisitions this year, investing in Home Pages Directories, an independent, regionally concentrated community yellow pages publisher; 21st Services, a leading provider of mission critical, life expectancy information that is currently used in thee life settlement industry and the secondary market for life insurance; and Western Institutional Review Board, which provides information management solutions and compliance services that play an integral role in the clinical trial process for new drugs and medical devices and ensure the safety of trial participants. In addition, the firm has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SJI, LLC, a private telecommunications and broadband services provider serving southern Louisiana, and expects to close that transaction before year end.

It is good to see more and more capital and opportunity coming into the Life Settlement Industry.

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Coventry Comments on King Lawsuit: Reiterates Opposition to Investor-Initiated Life Insurance; Did Not Buy $10 Million Policy

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa. – In response to inquiries, Coventry First today issued the following statement about a lawsuit Larry King filed against a life insurance agent that assisted Mr. King in selling two life insurance policies in the secondary market for life insurance.

Although Coventry is not a party to the suit, the company believes certain statements in the complaint are susceptible to misleading and erroneous inferences about Coventry’s business practices.

The purchase and immediate sale of the $10 million dollar policy is a type of transaction that Coventry opposes and the company has been the leading proponent of legislation and regulation to protect life insurance consumers against these sorts of schemes.
Coventry did not purchase the $10 million dollar contract described on page 4 of the lawsuit which the Plaintiff admits, was taken out for the express purpose “to immediately sell his beneficial interest in the new $10 million dollar insurance policy to a third person.”
Coventry believes life insurance is a valuable asset and policyowners should keep their policies. If, however, the policy is not going to be kept, then policyowners should consider the benefits of selling their policies in the secondary market.
The lawsuit gratuitously references a lawsuit filed against Coventry by former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. More than 90% of that suit has been thrown out by the court on a motion to dismiss. In addition, the state of Florida investigated the same allegations, and closed its investigation on October 1, 2007, with no finding of wrongdoing.

Read: Larry King Life Insurance Scam

Source: Business Wire