Posted by The Policy Settlement Alliance on Fri, Aug 13, 2010 @ 12:00 PM
By Ronald C. Kerstetter
Life insurance settlement options can be a useful planning tool so, what are they? If you are selling (settling) your policy life insurance settlement options are generally, a lump sum, lump sum plus a paid up life insurance policy, annuitization of your lump sum. These options may be more varied depending upon your personal situation and the settlement advisor or settlement company you are dealing with.
Life insurance settlement options may also be offered by your life insurance company. Some of the life insurance policies and life insurance companies available today have internal life settlement options that not only provide cash at death but, provide “living benefits” as well. A snapshot of life settlement options offered by these policies and companies shows, terminal illness benefits up to a percentage of face amount, critical and chronic illness benefits, again subject to policy limitations, and disability benefits as defined by the policy.
Several insurance companies have offered life settlement options to existing policy holders; this may be recent and not updated in your current policy.
If you are considering life insurance settlement options, please contact your insurance or settlement advisor to see what if any benefits are provided through your current policy or carrier. Your settlement advisor will normally know this before you ask. For more information please click on LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Wed, Jun 30, 2010 @ 12:42 PM
By Ronald C. Kerstetter
I am reminded daily of the value of life settlements and how the life insurance settlement options can have in providing quality of life and freedom of choice in one’s life. I have seen situations where a retiring executive/business owner is looking for a source of cash to purchase their “dream home” The penalties associated with the liquidation of part of their pension plan are too high and with the current housing market, their home is no longer the source of that money. Many of these executives can forgo the penalties of liquidating their pension plans and use the life insurance settlement options that are now available giving them access to the cash that they would not have otherwise had in life insurance policies that no longer fit their needs. These forgotten assets can often be the term or permanent life insurance policies that they purchased for business needs, and are something no longer needed. Those policies can have greater value than the cash surrender value offered by the insurance carrier.
Click our Livepdq link today to get started on the life insurance settlement options available today.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 03:09 PM
By Stephen A. Bailey
Life Insurance Settlement Options
- what you need to know before you get your hopes up. OK, so you are over 70 years of age, have a million dollar life insurance policy that is unaffordable or unneeded, and now you want to sell it. What do you need to know, before you even talk with an agency that can handle the transaction? If the following, any of the following, are not answered in the affirmative, you are not be ready for life insurance settlement options available to you.
New laws are coming out and you and the agency selling your policy must be aware of them. First and foremost, it is extremely important that your policy is past the 2 year contestable period. Life Insurance policies originally had the contestable period as the suicide clause. Companies figured that no one wanting to commit suicide, was going to wait 2 years to do it. Now that encompasses much more. In recent years, with the option of life insurance settlement options and selling your policy, Life Insurance companies are very strict about Insurable Interest and they do not want insureds taking out policies solely with the intent of selling them........and we agree!
So, you as an insured, you need to show that the policy you are trying to sell, is no longer needed and in fact, would benefit you more by using the life insurance settlement options than by keeping the policy. Other factors will come into play when wanting to sell your policy and I will discuss those in later blogs.
For now and for more information go to LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 01:08 PM
By John W Thompson
Many people do not realize that they have life insurance settlement options. Up until recently many seniors did not realize that they had an option to sell their life insurance policy on the open market and those that did know something about the settlement market were scared because of the propaganda that has been put out in the main stream media about life settlements and who could potentially own your life insurance policy after you sell it.
The life insurance settlement options have been around sense 1911 and at different times different risks were associated with doing a life settlement, but now thirty-nine states have laws or regulations regarding life settlements and four of those states now require life insurance carriers to disclose the availability of life settlements to seniors that are surrendering or lapsing their life insurance policies.
Due to the changes in the laws and the changes that the industry leaders have implemented using life settlement options in order to reduce your annual expenditures and possibly creating a lifetime income stream is now within reach.
Click our Livepdq link today to see how we can help you with your life settlement.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 09:33 PM
By Edward E Leisher
Life insurance settlement options
are abundant in today’s market. Consumers have a vast choice of producers and companies have many investors to choose from. Once you have chosen to move forward with selling your policy, your life insurance settlement options in regards to payment for your policy are also abundant.
Consumers can choose from taking lump sum cash payments from their settlements, or they can choose from various income options. Income options can be great for consumers because they contribute to their monthly income for day to day living expenses.
There are even some outlets now where consumers can include riders that will provide their beneficiaries with the remaining payments from the settlement should the seller die before receiving the full settlement amount. Whatever form of payment the consumer chooses, life insurance settlement options provide a great way to boost monthly income and generate additional cash flow to seniors.
Find out more click on the LIVEpdq!
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 08:34 PM
By Edward E Leisher
Life insurance settlement options
are now easily available to insured’s and policy owners wanting to sell their policies. There are various outlets and producers ready and willing to negotiate and explain to an insured their life insurance settlement options, but the question is how can the insured ensure that they are getting the best price possible for their policy?
Creating competition and comparing producers and the offers they provide is the key for an insured looking into their life insurance settlement options. By “shopping” the case around to different outlets and comparing the results, the insured is able to make sure that they are getting the fair market price for their policy.
Your policy should sell for less than the policy’s face value but for higher than the cash value, and you should review all of your life insurance settlement options before choosing to proceed with your life settlement transaction.
Find out more at LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 07:08 PM
By Stephen R. Bathon, CLU, ChFC, AEP
People looking into their life insurance settlement options
should temper their findings with good old common sense. If you have a policy you are thinking about selling, you need to compare the alternatives.
If you no longer have a beneficiary or if you simply can’t afford the premium, your choices are limited. Some people, however, are checking out life insurance settlement options to see if they can improve their current insurance portfolio.
Before the emergence of the settlement market, people who wanted a larger, better or different kind of policy, did not have many options. Assuming they were still insurable, they could buy a new policy and transfer the cash from the old contract into the new contract. This was referred to as a 1035 exchange, so named for the IRS code section that covered this tax free transaction.
The money from the old policy would create an instant cash value in the new policy and help off-set the insured’s increase in age. This would have the effect of keeping the premium down even through the insured was now older.
The problem with a 1035 exchange is that many times the old policy does not have a large enough cash value and the insured has gotten considerably older. With today’s life insurance settlement options, the low cash value and the increased age are actually an advantage.
If you are interested in checking out your life insurance settlement options and making a comparison to a 1035 exchange, please check out the LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 04:56 PM
By Stephen R. Bathon, CLU, ChFC, AEP
Life insurance settlement options
can be a valuable tool for the advanced estate planner. Life insurance has been used for years as a way to remove assets from a wealthy person’s estate. In the vast majority of cases the life insurance is purchased by an irrevocable trust to keep the death benefit from being taxed. Using life insurance settlement options allows the planner an exit strategy if for some reason the insurance is no longer needed or if the planner or trustee has found a more suitable alternative.
Life insurance is front-end loaded. This means that most all of the acquisition costs (commissions, underwriting expenses, etc.) are take out in the first few years. In most cases the cash value takes years to be equal to the premiums paid. With newer, low cost, low cash value contracts, the cash value never equals the amount of the premiums paid. This means if the planner or trustee wants to cancel the contract, most of the monies paid for premiums will be lost. This is no longer true with life insurance settlement options.
Today’s planner can recommend insurance knowing that there is another option, the sale of the contract to a settlement fund. In the majority of cases, a sale of this kind might never be necessary, as the whole purpose of the trust is to create wealth in a non-taxable account to eventually pay one’s federal estate taxes. That said, times change, new contracts are developed and for one reason or another, the trust might want to remove, increase or change its life policy.
Having life insurance settlement options available to the planner increases his comfort level when it comes to recommending the purchase of life insurance in a trust.
For addition information about life insurance settlement options and the uses of life insurance, please click the LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 03:47 PM
By Scott J. Dressel
In 2005 Deloitte Development LLC published a comprehensive report titled “The Life Settlements Market An Actuarial Perspective on Consumer Economic Value”, which gives a good insight on life insurance settlement options. The report was written by Deloitte Consulting and The University of Connecticut. This publication gave an extreme comprehensive overview on life insurance settlement options for the consumer and an insight into a rapidly emerging industry. Since this review was written over 5 years ago it would be interesting to see an updated report on just how the life insurance settlement options have changed over the last five years. The industry has gone through expansive growth so change is inevitable. The article details the following topics, introduction and background of the industry, perceived benefits of life settlements, actuarial valuation, finance theory approach, empirical analysis, marketing materials and solicitations, regulations and disclosures, limitations of current regulations and disclosure requirements, misconceptions on lapse experience, pricing techniques, and profitability of life insurance companies. The publication begins with an executive summary and as with all well written publications ends with a conclusion, acknowledgments and a bibliography. From the enormous amount of information on the internet regarding life settlements this publication is a must read.
For more information please click on the LIVEpdq.
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.
Posted by Alice Hood on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 03:20 PM
By Rick S Cantville
Clients that are considering a life settlement should be aware of the life insurance settlement options that are available to them in today's market.
In past years, the offer to purchase a life insurance policy consisted of a cash only offer to the owner of the policy. This meant that if the life insurance policy qualified for a settlement, a cash offer would be presented to the client, normally as a percentage of face amount. For instance, if a client is selling a $1,000,000 policy and the offer to the client was a 10% offer, then the offer on the table is $100,000.
Life insurance settlement options today can consist of an insurance offer, which is an offer to provide the beneficiaries of the policy a percentage of the death benefit when the insured passes away. This can be a benefit to the family, since the policy is now being paid for by the new owner (investor), but will receive a small portion of the death benefit will be received by the beneficiaries to pay for final expenses. This will be provided to them tax free.
Other life insurance settlement options can include a combination of a cash offer and insurance offer, which also has its advantages to the client, since the owner will receive cash now, and the beneficiaries will receive tax-free death benefit.
The life settlement funders and investors continue to find innovative strategies for life insurance settlement options, which can be seen as a benefit to the industry, as it often gives more options to the owner of the life insurance policy.
To determine the value of your life insurance policy, please visit LivePDQ today!
Note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author, which may differ from the opinion of policysettlement.com.