Life insurance is a long-term asset. Over the decades a life insurance policy is in force, your client’s financial situation is likely to evolve. Sometimes, that evolution is so significant that the existing life coverage is no longer a good fit.
Whether you’re the buyer or the seller, a life settlement can reshape your finances in short order. Unfortunately, not all investors and policyholders have access to the same level of life settlement opportunity. That’s because the secondary markets for life insurance vary in size and activity level from state to state. In our latest study, the Harbor Life Settlements U.S. Life Settlement Index, we set out to quantify those differences and identify the states that are most and least accommodating to high-value life settlements.
An irrevocable life trust or ILIT is an entity created to hold a life insurance policy. Its primary purpose is to minimize estate taxes by transferring ownership of the life insurance policy away from the insured. Putting the policy in an irrevocable trust generally precludes the value of the death benefit from being added to the taxable estate.
Read on for an explanation of the secondary market for life insurance, how it differs from the primary market, and the benefits eligible policyholders can expect to receive from the sale of their life insurance.
The cash surrender value of your life insurance policy is the amount of cash you may withdraw if you surrender your policy to the insurance company. By doing this, you forfeit the right to the death benefit and will no longer have to pay your premiums. This is an alternative to borrowing against your policy, which would keep it in effect and require you to still pay premiums and pay interest on what you borrowed.
If you are a senior who’s interested in liquidating your life insurance, you should know the real truth about life settlements. That’s the only way you can make an informed decision on whether a life settlement is right for you. A good first step is to review our breakdown of the five most common life settlement myths below. If you’ve ever discussed life settlements with a broker-dealer, you’ve may have heard one of two already.
Whether you’re a policyholder, an agent, or an advisor, it’s important to understand the concept of fiduciary duty and how it applies to life settlements. We’ve developed this in-depth guide to help. Read on to learn about fiduciary standards, what constitutes a breach of fiduciary duty, and the complexities of fiduciary duty as they relate to life settlements.
If you’re interested in selling your life insurance, it’s important to understand the nuances of the laws and regulations in your state. Some states regulate only viatical settlements, for example, while other states govern both life and viatical settlements. What follows is an overview of life settlement laws and regulations by state, including key regulatory concepts such as mandatory disclosure and waiting periods.
Read on for the most important life settlement and life insurance facts and statistics for 2021 — including how many people have life insurance, the average face value of life insurance policies, how life settlement proceeds compare to cash surrender values, and how quickly the life settlement industry is growing.
Life insurance settlement options are notoriously confusing, particularly when you try to compare them. Evaluating a lump-sum payment relative to an annuity, for example, can feel like an “apples-to-oranges” comparison unless you are a trained statistician. Thankfully, you don’t need a knack for number-crunching to identify which settlement option best suits your situation. All you have to do is review this in-depth guide we created to help folks like you make an informed choice about life insurance settlement.
Harbor Life is a life settlement marketing company. Harbor Life will refer qualified policy owners to one or several licensed life settlement brokers or providers. Harbor Life will be compensated for life settlement transactions that originate on www.harborlifesettlements.com. There is no guarantee that every user will receive an offer. The names of the Harbor Life users marketed as example transactions have been changed to protect the privacy of the user.
