Life settlements – too good to be true?

Life settlements have been a controversial sector of the insurance-linked securities market for the past decade, but with a series of swap and note-based products now being marketed at pension fund investors, has this asset class come of age? Aaron Woolner reports

elderlycouple

Claims that life settlements – US whole life policies traded on the secondary market – are an asset class (almost) entirely uncorrelated with the broader financial markets, and provide annual rates of return that some claim can touch 20%, against a volatility of 5%, sound too good to be true. And according to Peter Smith, head of investments policy at the UK Financial Services Authority's (FSA) conduct policy division, they most probably are.

Speaking at a life settlements conference earlier

Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.

To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe

You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.

Sorry, our subscription options are not loading right now

Please try again later. Get in touch with our customer services team if this issue persists.

New to Risk.net? View our subscription options

Most read articles loading...

You need to sign in to use this feature. If you don’t have a Risk.net account, please register for a trial.

Sign in
You are currently on corporate access.

To use this feature you will need an individual account. If you have one already please sign in.

Sign in.

Alternatively you can request an individual account here