No Surrender: Tapping Into the Resource-generating Power of Life Settlements
October 21, 2019
Mr. Freedman is CEO of LightHouse Life Solutions, LLC, a US life settlement provider. Michael has been a leading voice in the life settlement market for more than 17 years, serving as a senior executive for two life settlement companies before co-founding LightHouse Life in 2018. Visit www.lighthouselife.com
It’s no secret that the costs of living in retirement are rising. Healthcare costs are creating financial hardships and crises that can devastate older Americans and their families. While seniors look for resources in retirement, one untapped – and often unknown – tool for seniors is to sell their life insurance policies, known as a life settlement. Seniors who sell their policies receive significantly more than if they lapse or surrender that policy back to the insurance company. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) reported in 2017 that policyowners receive an amount that is “generally four or more times greater than if they lapsed or surrendered their policy”, citing university and government studies.
Three of four Americans age 65 and older will lapse or surrender their life insurance policies, leaving no death benefit for their loved ones – and little or nothing for themselves after paying premiums for decades. Over the next decade more than $2 trillion in death benefits will be lapsed or surrendered by seniors whose policies likely could be sold via a life settlement, according to an insurance industry research company.
This article originally appeared on Life and Health Advisor.