Much to the satisfaction of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and Life Insurance Council of New York (LICONY), New York legislators approved S.66009/A.66009, which was developed to protect senior citizens. According to a joint announcement by the three organizations, senior citizens in New York will have important new protections against a financial fraud called stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI).

In STOLI transactions, financial speculators or their representatives induce senior citizens to purchase life insurance, policies the seniors otherwise would not buy, solely to transfer the death benefits to the speculators. The speculators pay the premiums and then hope to profit by receiving the death benefits when the seniors die. This contrasts with a life insurance settlement, where a policy that was purchased in good faith, but is no longer needed or wanted by the policy owner is sold to a third party.

“This legislation places New York among a growing number of states battling against STOLI and those who would abuse senior citizens,” Frank Keating, president and CEO of ACLI, said in the announcement. “The legislation specifically outlaws STOLI, and it gives the New York Insurance Department new tools to identify and deter fraudulent transactions. It also gives seniors considering a life insurance settlement new rights to assure they get a fair deal. We are happy to endorse this legislation.”

New York is the 27th state to enact legislation deterring STOLI.

Source: InsuranceNetworking.com

The Life Settlement Industry really needs more media outlets, and now we see a friendly picture site launch geared stricty to Life Settlements. Life Settlement Pictures will have helpful image and pictures regarding contracts, applications, laws, regulation, helpful charts, and more.

They are also planning to interact with professionals, industry events, and companies that can portray a better view of who they are and what they do.

Check out Life Settlement Pictures, they are working on adding a lot more content within the next couple weeks.

Future Media Outlets:
Life Settlement Magazine
Life Settlement Forum

Double Bidding on Life Settlement Cases

I have been talking to a handful of both agents and brokers who are glad that it seems like double bidding has really started to slow down. Double bidding is basically when a life settlement case is shopped by multiple brokers and the funding source will offer the same amount to the brokers and basically let whoever will work for less or  whoever has more control can close it.

In the current market, where we have more cases than buyers we are seeing funders no longer double bidding and almost ignoring the policies that are provided by multiple brokers. This is a buyers market and the funds know when they see the file from multiple sources it is going to be shopped, their offer is going to be shopped, and it could take longer to close.

Just when you thought that the more brokers shopping your cases will get you the highest offer, it actually might hurt your chance of closing the case.