Life Insurance Settlements ABC's
Viatical Settlements
For people living with terminal illness
Life Settlements
for people over 65 for people with no terminal illness
Be an educated consumer:: To ensure you are fully protected and get the most for your policy work with a full time settlement specialist !!
Life Insurance Settlement - the act of assigning all benefits, rights and premium obligations of a life insurance policy to a third party or entity in exchange for a lump-sum cash payment less than the net death benefit of the policy.
Life Insurance Settlements are further broken down as follows:
Life Settlement - the sale of a life insurance policy in which the insured is over 65 and does not have a life-threatening illness. Minimum age can vary with serious health issues. A life settlement should always be higher than the cash surrender value.
Viatical Settlement* - the sale of a life insurance policy of an insured of any age who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and is expected to live less than 24 months. Qualified, properly executed viatical settlement proceeds are free of federal tax.
*Viatical settlement brokers and providers have specific licensing requirements which vary by state. Go to www.naic.org to find your state’s dept of insurance to determine licensing status. NOTE: If you live in a state which requires viatical professionals be licensed, and you do not use a properly licensed person or firm(s), your settlement will be subject to federal taxes. Speak to your own tax advisor for further information.
Life Settlement Professional or Specialist - A person or company whose sole business is that of selling, brokering, purchasing, investing, underwriting or otherwise engaging in the life settlement industry on a daily basis. Life Settlement professionals do not offer investments, insurance or other financial products.
Providers - Companies in business exclusively to purchase life insurance policies on the secondary market, at a discount from their face value.
- A person or company whose sole business is that of selling, brokering, purchasing, investing, underwriting or otherwise engaging in the life settlement industry on a daily basis. Life Settlement professionals do not offer investments, insurance or other financial products. Companies in business exclusively to purchase life insurance policies on the secondary market, at a discount from their face value.
Funders - Banks and other financial institutions; pension funds, trusts, and other financial investment vehicles who lend money or extend credit to the provider companies to purchase policies. Some smaller providers may use individual investors to fund policies.
Settlement Brokers - Settlement Brokers are specialists who represent policy sellers as their primary business. They gather and analyze required information and submit a complete, properly underwritten case to multiple provider companies. In this way, they create an auction to solicit and obtaining, multiple competitive bids from qualified settlement providers. The settlement broker negotiates the highest offer for the policy seller.
Settlement Representatives or Agents - Settlement agents or representatives typically represent one company (or at the very least owe one particular company the right of first refusal).
Insurance Agents and/or Brokers - While insurance agents are one of the best sources for life settlement clients, they historically have created the most problems for the market. While often unintentional, their enthusiasm combined with lack of knowledge and understanding of this ever-changing, complex, still very new market have created a risky situation for sellers who have chosen to use insurance agents or brokers to handle life settlements.
Let the seller beware! Despite the best of intentions, the policy settlement market and the basic life insurance industry are extremely different from each other. This is an important decision – go to a life settlement professional.
Qualifications
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Do you know that....
More than 90% of all policies can be sold if other criteria is met. Plus, a settlement expert, like Innovative Settlements, may recognize ways to utilize your current policy that others, not so well versed in this complex market, would recognize. Please don't assume that your policy cannot be turned into cash - have a settlement expert evaluate it for you! We accept UL, Term, Whole life, group life, Key Man, Survivorship, FEGLI, etc. If in doubt we’re just a phone call or email away.
Insurance Policy Requirements ~
These are general basic qualifying characteristics:
Life insurance policies must be more than two (2) years old and not subject to a contestability or suicide exclusion.
Please call us at 1-800-905-0114 with your specific situation to determine if your policy will be of interest to providers or email us at Info@InnovativeSettlements.com
Health Criteria ~ Life Expectancy (LE)
IMPORTANT NOTE TO ANYONE OVER 65
WITH SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUES
- A life expectancy of 24 months or less is technically a viatical settlement and should be treated as such. Viatical brokers and funders require specialized licensing in most states and provide the policy seller with specific protections.
- Proceeds from qualified viatical settlements are federally tax-free
- In almost all States life insurance agents are not properly licensed to represent viatical clients. We urge anyone who may fall into this category to use a properly licensed viatical broker to represent you from the start! Viatical brokers, like Innovative Settlements, are highly qualified to assist you in your life settlement needs as well.
Go to www.naic.org to see if your state requires special licensing to work with a viatical file.
Life Settlement providers require longer LE’s: from 25 months up. Currently the maximum LE acceptable is between 15 – 20 years. Important Note: Long LE’s translate to minimal payments. Any policy seller with a long LE should seriously consider holding on to their policy until their situation and age changes so that they may reap greater benefits at a more optimal time. We can help you determine the best way to proceed. Just call for your free consultation.
- A final note: There are exceptions to every rule. An experienced settlement broker knows which providers are the most appropriate for any given situation. We know who has money they need to place quickly and when they may be paying a premium to complete a portfolio.
- Any seasoned settlement broker has access to all the same providers as others, but more is not always best.. Creating an auction with hand picked companies, specific to our client’s case, rather than blanketing the market as some brokers do, allow us to create a fair and competitive environment which should reap the largest benefits more quickly than “throwing out a wide net”.
- The general rule of thumb is pretty basic: The higher the premium, the longer the LE, the less the settlement. And, the shorter the LE, the less premium will be necessary going forward, will help obtain a higher settlement.
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Not all states require licensing at this time. We are currently licensed as a viatical and/or life settlement broker in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin – and can legally do business in many other states. In Florida, we have a life insurance broker license which is their new requirement, having abolished viatical licensing recently. You can find out about licensing requirements in your own state by going here to locate your State’s Department of Insurance.
