Life Settlements can fund Retirement and Long Term Care
With an increasingly aging population, the Secondary Market’s ability to quickly generate liquidity from unneeded insurance policies is becoming more relevant each day.
To explore the benefits of the Secondary Market, seniors can get a SMV®, Secondary Market Valuation, on their policies through their advisors. With an SMV® advisors have valuable information about the fair market value of the policy when helping clients make informed decisions regarding financial challenges.
The Secondary Market has changed the way we think about life insurance and planning, and cannot be overlooked for a family, individual or business entity who are contemplating any change in a life insurance policy. Before the emergence of the Secondary Market for life insurance, individuals with impaired health were unable to receive additional consideration above and beyond the cash surrender value.
Now, that same individual may be able uncover additional value by selling a policy in the Secondary Market. The Secondary Market also provides seniors a liquidity option when stock portfolios are still recovering and insurance premiums are still high or increasing.
In general, policyholders who benefit most in the secondary market are over 65, are not terminally ill, and have a life expectancy out to 15 years. Their policies would have face amounts of between $100,000 and $50,000,000 and must be at least two years beyond the policy issue date.
If you think it would be prudent for your client to consider alternatives like the secondary market, talk to an Ashar specialist. You can also go to https://ashargroup.com/policy-value-questionnaire/ to take the first steps in determining if a policy may qualify for a life settlement. It only takes a minute, and it could help save your clients thousands.
Ashar’s proprietary SMV®, Secondary Market Valuation, is a unique analysis performed by Ashar Group to assess the fair market value of a life insurance or annuity asset for planning purposes. How does this help your customers?
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A life settlement is a financial transaction that enables a policy owner to appraise and sell their life insurance policy. Similar to a piece of real estate or other valuable assets, the client can sell their policy to a third party for an amount higher than the cash surrender value, but less than the full death benefit.
Real Estate and Life Insurance/Annuities have a lot in common. More than you might imagine.
Both are valuable assets, both have a market value that can be hidden from view until evaluated, and both respond to the forces of supply and demand. Most importantly, if you decided to sell your home, you could sell it on the open market for a fair price to a qualified buyer. The same is true with Life Insurance and Annuities. But with Life Insurance and Annuities, the place to sell those is the Secondary Market.
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Clients rely on trusted professionals to provide objective guidance and recommendations. Many times you are required to make decisions that are in your clients' best interests during an emotional time in their life. We understand the importance of serving your clients, protecting your reputation, and growing the assets of all parties.
Now we come to the determination of whether it’s time to consider a life settlement. This is something you can quickly determine by taking a Policy Value Quiz. It’s a quick 7-question screening tool that will help you determine if a life insurance policy may qualify for a Secondary Market Solution. At the end of the questionnaire, you will receive a total score and the probability of qualification.
There comes a time for anyone with a life insurance policy to make the decision to surrender the policy to the insurance carrier or sell it on a secondary market. There are many factors involved when making this big decision, because a large amount of money could hang in the balance.
Historically clients have always had their assets and property appraised. Would a client ignore valuable real estate, artwork, or jewelry?
Life insurance policies are both assets and property that may have a Secondary Market Value that greatly surpasses the cash value. How will the client know what it’s really worth if they do not have it appraised? Would there be liability if a policy was surrendered or lapsed that had a Secondary Market Value of 10-20-30% of the overall death benefit? What if their life policy was being transferred for fair market value? How would you determine that value?
The Ashar Group’s proprietary SMV® (secondary market valuation) process determines that value for you and your client.
Operating within the trust and estate planning markets can be complex. The need to consistently monitor and rebalance the components of a client’s overall plan can involve collaboration among many professionals and multiple disciplines.
As a starting point, get a secondary opinion® of the potential value of your client’s policy at https://ashargroup.com/quiz/
To fund or not to fund, that is the question. Policies owned in Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts account for over 50 percent of the policies we review at Ashar Group. The statistics are staggering regarding the amount of insurance in trusts that have been ignored or underfunded. A common scenario we encounter is an underperforming life insurance policy that suddenly needs premiums or it could be in danger of lapsing. This results in an expedient exercise to decide what to do next - to fund or not to fund. (more…)
