The secondary market for life insurance is an emerging asset class that has become an important consideration for life insurance policy owners seeking to maximize their financial assets. The secondary market for life insurance gives policy owners typically over the age of 65 a meaningful alternative to allowing their unwanted policies back to the issuer for the policy's cash surrender value. The cash surrender value often represents only a fraction of the true value of a life insurance policy. The secondary market has created an asset class based on the future value of life insurance proceeds. Through a life settlement transaction policy owners are able to maximize the value of this asset and institutional investors who facilitate the purchase of these policies are able to realize predictable returns.

The concept of a secondary market for life insurance policies began to emerge in the United States in the late 1990's and has steadily grown. As the level of awareness of the life settlement alternative continues to grow among life insurance policy owners and their advisors and as baby boomers begin to reach age 65, the industry will continue to expand.

While each policy owner's financial situation is unique, every life settlement should be a "win-win" transaction for the policy owner and institutional investor. The policy owner receives more value than can be obtained by surrendering the policy to the life insurance carrier and the institutional investor can achieve desirable returns without the disadvantages of more volatile investments. Life settlements are not affected by inflation, world events or economic conditions and are backed by an asset with risks that are known and manageable.

We at Secondary Life Capital, LLC see a very bright future for our industry. We see an industry and a market that is not yet mature and is not yet "efficient". It will require our efforts and the efforts of firms with a similar vision and dedication to the industry to make the secondary market for life insurance a robust and respected asset class that meets the changing needs of individual life insurance consumers and the investment expectations of institutional investors.

To find out more about the life settlement industry, we recommend visiting the web site for our industry association: The Life Insurance Settlement Association(LISA) http://www.lisassociation.org.