Your clients rely on you as their trusted adviser for innovative insurance and financial planning options. Due to recently enacted laws, financial professionals have the opportunity to add a new product to their client services: Life Settlements. Jolene Fullerton explains how this powerful resource can allow you to help your clients maximize the full potential of their Life insurance policies.
A Life Settlement is the sale of an existing Life policy for a lump sum of cash that's less than the policy's face amount, but more than the cash surrender value. A Life insurance policy is property -- like a car, house, stocks and bonds -- that can be legally sold in accordance with applicable laws. Through a Life Settlement, a policy owner can realize value today from an asset that's generally thought to only provide a benefit when the insured passes away.
Some of your clients might be thinking about surrendering their Life insurance policies or simply letting them lapse. There are many reasons why a senior citizen would want to sell their Life policy:
- The policy is no longer needed or wanted
- To pay for the rising cost of long-term health care
- The premiums become unaffordable
- There's a change of beneficiary due to death or divorce
- To receive more money than the cash surrender value of the policy
- There's a forced liquidation due to financial hardship or bankruptcy
- There's a change in estate planning needs
- They desire to live their later years more comfortably
If you begin to see signals of missed premium payments or know that your senior client is experiencing life-changing events, a Life Settlement might be a great option for them to consider. Now you can turn these unfortunate events into win-win situations for both you and your client.
Your client benefits by:
- Obtaining a lump sum of cash to spend or invest as they like
- Eliminating premium payments on an unwanted or unneeded policy
- Enjoying the ability to purchase a more appropriate policy
- Receiving a tax deduction if the client donates some or all of the policy to charity
You benefit by:
- Gaining fees for facilitating the Life Settlement transaction
- Converting Term policies
- Earning fees for placing new investments, annuities, and/or Life insurance, using the money from the Life Settlement
- Knowing that you've provided your client with a beneficial option to lapsing or surrendering their policy
How does a Life Settlement work? First, the Life policy should meet these criteria:
- Insures a person over age 65, or with a serious illness
- Has a face value of at least $100,000
- Is at least two years old
- Insurance coverage is no longer needed or wanted
A Life Settlement broker can determine the policy's eligibility for a Life Settlement and will seek to obtain the highest possible offer for the policy. The value of a Life insurance policy is determined by a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the age and medical condition of the insured, type of policy, rating of the issuing insurance company, and amount of premium payments to keep the policy in force. Most types of insurance policies can qualify, including Universal, Whole Life, and Converted Term.
When a mutually agreed on price is determined for the Life insurance policy, the owner is paid a lump sum in cash, the ownership and beneficiary rights are transferred to the purchaser. All future premium payments become the responsibility of the purchaser and upon the death of the insured, the death benefit is payable to the purchaser.