Good article about Wealth Managers and their feelings towards the current state of Life Settlement Funds. Here is an excerpt that is pretty interesting.

But Brewin Dolphin fund analyst Ben Gutteridge remains unconvinced. He told Citywire Wealth Manager that despite the good performance boasted by some of these funds, he still has some concerns about valuation and liquidity.

He said: ‘The product providers we have met so far have each boasted a conservative approach to valuation. However, these methods are all mark-to-model rather than mark-to-market. This raises the issue of stale pricing, and whether a forced sale of a life policy would realise the price at which it sits in the portfolio. Despite the size of the life policy market in the US, as a tradeable asset class, they are illiquid and can take weeks to sell.

You can read and a get a link to complete article here:
Wealth Managers remain sceptical about Life Settlement Funds

Also visit:
Life Settlement Funds

Source: Citywire.co.uk

Portfolio aggregation is the hottest trend in life insurance settlement investing today and represents the quickest and most efficient way for capital to enter the life settlement market. Executives at The Lifeline Program are seeing an alarming amount of capital coming into the industry by seeking to purchase existing portfolios that do not live up to the expectation of fund managers.

The webinar will cover what to look for, what to avoid and what is needed to enter the settlement investment industry properly. It will be led by Wm. Scott Page, president and CEO of the Lifeline Program, one of the nation’s leading life settlement providers.

Hedge fund managers, institutional investors, accredited investors and anyone interested in life settlement investments, life insurance settlement portfolios, non-correlated investments, alternative investments or life settlement securitization should attend.

“With 19 years of experience aggregating top-quality life settlement portfolios for some of the most sophisticated financial firms in the world,” said Page. “I am confident in our ability to meet your portfolio needs. Our custom-built technology platform allows us to respond and adapt to your specific purchasing criteria, while our national policy source network and direct-to-consumer marketing provides access to a large selection of quality policy product.”

For more information, please contact Audrey Morgan at amorgan@thelifeline.com or https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/298624922 to register.

The Lifeline Program has developed proprietary methods to aggregate insurance policies and to create custom portfolios, enabling fund managers to select, to their exact specifications, the size, type and performance characteristics of a lie settlement portfolio. For this purchase, the investor group had specific criteria including that it was only seeking policies with $5 – $10 million in face value and life expectancies of 180 months or less. Within about two weeks, all eligible policies were identified and funds for their purchase were escrowed.

“This project proves our point that aggregation is just as fast as purchasing an existing portfolio outright – but without losing the ability to custom-select each policy purchased,” said Wm. Scott Page, president and CEO of The Lifeline Program. “We quickly aggregated a portfolio with detailed performance criteria, and there are no questions regarding insurable interest or transparency. It is a far superior manner for an investment group to enter the life settlement market.”

According to Page, the company is currently seeking other institutional investors and fund managers to partner with the Lifeline Program to aggregate portfolios of policies. Page states that the company’s objective is to purchase A+/AAA rated personal life insurance policies directly from consumers and to bundle the policies into small portfolios. These portfolios may be held by the investors, providing stable, uncorrelated returns or resold as existing pools. Such arrangements will include a post-sale servicing contract to manage premium payments, insured tracking and death benefit collections.

Source: Business Wire

More portfolio information and investment news can be found at the Life Settlement Info Blog.

MAPS Releases Newest Life Settlement Pricing Model

NEW YORK – Model Actuarial Pricing Systems (MAPS), formerly Milliman Pricing Software, released MAPS 9.1, the latest version of its widely used and highly regarded life settlement pricing model.

MAPS 9.1 will be made available to all new and existing MAPS customers. It introduces entirely new software architecture and many important new capabilities including:

• Premium projection decoupled from pricing projection date
• Pricing based on separate discount rates for premiums and benefits
• New IRR at death report
• Whole life dividends greater than premiums applied to benefits
• Enhanced threshold options (percent of face, combined threshold options)
• Policy loan modeling enhancements
• Enhanced user input premium options

“I am very excited to be making our first new release as MAPS. MAPS 9.1 has been extensively reviewed, tested and approved by Milliman, Inc., with whom we continue to maintain a strong working relationship. As we continue to upgrade and improve our software, we look forward to ongoing input from both Milliman and our customers.” said Robert D’Andrea, President of MAPS.

MAPS’ new software architecture will enable customers to more efficiently access data and analytical engines for other purposes such as integrating cash flow and pricing results into other systems. It will also enable MAPS to introduce new products and functionality to customers on a more frequent and timely basis.