Advisor Blogs

May 19, 2017
Beyond the IRA: Remember Life Settlements

On the surface, it would appear that individual retirement accounts are a popular choice for Americans, with roughly one in three U.S. households owning at least one IRA. But a study just released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College suggests that IRAs may not be working for retirees the way they were intended.
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May 11, 2017
Proposed Tax Bill Would Clarify Tax Treatment of Life Settlements

In May 2009, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2009-13 addressing the tax implications of a life settlement to the seller of a life insurance policy. H.R. 1262 was recently introduced to remedy the shortcomings of this revenue ruling.
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April 26, 2017
Helping Your Clients Afford a More Expensive Retirement

An article by LISA's President and CEO, Darwin Bayston discusses how you can help your clients afford a more expensive retirement.
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April 19, 2017
Life Settlement Opportunities for Business Life Insurance

Life settlements are frequently viewed, primarily, as an option for personal life insurance and estate planning policies that are no longer wanted, needed or affordable. However, business-owned policies or personally owned business purpose policies can also make excellent life settlement candidates, yet these policies are often overlooked.
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March 14, 2017
A Life Settlement and Replace Strategy that Remains Viable

The days of selling a policy in a life settlement and replacing it with a new one are mostly gone, but one variation on that strategy can still work in the right situation.
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March 07, 2017
5 pitfalls to avoid when assisting clients with a life settlement

There is a peculiar paradox in the financial advisory world: Ninety percent of seniors who lapsed a life insurance policy would have considered a life settlement had they been aware of the possibility. Yet 65 percent of financial advisors have never recommended a life settlement to a client, but claim they would do so under the right circumstances.
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February 23, 2017
The life settlement market is heating up

A number of factors have reignited the life settlement market with both consumers and investors showing rising interest.
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February 15, 2017
Exploring Life Settlements? It’s always best to work with a LISA member

A life insurance policy is one of the most valuable assets many Americans will ever own. Unfortunately, far too many consumers are unaware they have the right to sell a life insurance policy through what is known as a life settlement transaction. As a result, billions of dollars worth of life insurance is “irrationally lapsed” each year.
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December 01, 2016
Demystifying the Secondary Marketplace for an Unneeded Life Insurance Policy

Four out of 10 U.S. financial advisors have only a limited familiarity with life settlements or are entirely unfamiliar with these transactions, according to a 2015 survey published by WealthManagement.com.
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November 10, 2016
Shattering a myth about life settlements: 5 advisor benefits

In addition to the benefits to clients, financial advisors themselves can benefit from working with their clients to pursue a life settlement.
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November 07, 2016
Schedule a Post-Retirement Financial Checkup

Most of us are familiar with the retirement planning shortfall in America, but at the same time there are millions of Americans who do a great job preparing for their golden years. They work hard, save with discipline and do their best to stick to a plan that will allow them to achieve their financial goals. If you are one of these retirees, congratulations! But don’t let the financial planning stop now. In fact, after you’ve entered retirement, it’s more important than ever to give your finances an annual checkup.
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October 12, 2016
4 creative ways to tackle rising health care costs when planning for retirement

No matter how hard you worked or how much you saved, the sad reality of today’s economic landscape is that the rising cost of health care can quickly eat away at your retirement fund.
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September 28, 2016
How to Rescue Seniors from Lapsing Life Insurance Policies

LifeHealthPro’s sister platform, BenefitsPro, reminded us on Sept. 12 that our industry needs to evolve to meet the needs of a graying population. Roughly 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, a group that accounts for 28 percent of the U.S. population.
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August 18, 2016
Life insurers: boosting earnings on backs of senior policy owners

Last weekend, the New York Times cast a national spotlight on an emerging problem that many of us have watched unfold quietly in recent years. The Times reported on the recent “skyrocketing” of life insurance premiums demanded by many life insurance carriers and traced the roots of this problem to “a crisis moment for a business once considered a bedrock of financial stability and an industry that supports the retirement of millions.”
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July 25, 2016
Life settlement = solution to rising senior health care costs

Health care inflation is a well-documented reality in the American economic landscape, but new data published this spring illustrates how pronounced this challenge is for American seniors.
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July 01, 2016
Brexit and Non-Correlation

It sure was a rough start to 2016 for the stock market. U.S. equity markets recorded their worst start to a year on record. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Stocks and oil prices had dropped together in the first six weeks of 2016, amid worries a downturn in China could export deflationary pressures world-wide. As those concerns eased and the Federal Reserve held back on raising interest rates, risk assets staged just as dramatic a recovery, sending the S&P 500 back into positive territory for the year.”
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June 02, 2016
Alternatives for an Unwanted Home vs. Unwanted or Unneeded Life Insurance

Buying a home is one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make but imagine purchasing a home from a builder where the contract of sale specifies that, if you choose to sell the home at a later date, you may only sell it back to the builder. Years later, when you are ready to downsize and no longer want the home, you approach the builder and she offers you ¼ of the home’s market value. You are left with three possibilities: (1) keep the home you no longer want; (2) sell at a below market price to the builder; or (3) abandon the home for nothing. This is a no-win situation – for the homeowner.
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May 13, 2016
Measuring Integrity

You’ve heard that the measure of a person’s character is determined whether they do the right thing even when no one is watching. This absolutely rings true with insurance, which is a highly-regulated industry.
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April 29, 2016
New Georgia Law Prohibits Insurers from Silencing Agents on Life Settlement Option

For the past few years, LISA member Bryan Freeman, founder and president of Habersham Funding, has led the charge in an important legislative initiative in his home state of Georgia. After much hard work and persistence, that effort has now paid off . . . and Georgia seniors are the real winners.
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April 15, 2016
Tax uncertainties for life settlements: 5+ troublesome issues

It’s tax time again, which means yet another year has passed without clarity for life settlement transactions.
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