Life Settlement News

Marvin Margolis, an 80-year-old Manhattan financial consultant, is looking for investors willing to bet on when he will die.

Two years ago, Mr. Margolis bought a large life insurance policy. Now, he’s considering selling it to a group of investors, a deal that should give him as much as $2 million to enjoy in his final years. In return, the investors will get the policy’s $7 million payout when he dies — which they hope will be soon, so they can stop paying his premiums.

Members of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) are “prepared to fight” action taken at the just concluded National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) winter meeting in San Antonio.

Peachtree Life Settlements (“Peachtree”) has announced that it has arranged for a credit facility allowing it to purchase over $1.5 billion of Life Settlements. Peachtree expects to close on the purchase of several billion dollars worth of life insurance contracts in 2007 and is working closely with major capital markets banks to augment this new facility. Sergio Salani, a Senior Vice President with Peachtree said: “This is terrific news for Peachtree and seniors with unneeded life insurance throughout the country. Given the tremendous volume of business being presented to us, the timing for this credit facility could not be better. We look forward to being the dominant life settlement provider in 2007.”

The Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) today adopted highly debated amendments to the Viatical Settlements Model Regulation during the Association’s Winter National Meeting in San Antonio.

The suitability of ‘experienced investor funds’ (EIFs) within offshore bonds based in the Isle of Man has been questioned by a former regulator in the territory.

Examination Management Services, Inc. (EMSI), a life settlement service provider, has been asked by two leading organizations in the life insurance industry to provide presentations on life settlement issues.

The Life Insurance Settlement Association will meet in conference in New York from November 29 to December 1. This will be the twelfth consecutive year for this conference, and it will occur in New York City at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Times Square. As in previous years, LISA will continue to provide leadership for the industry and to confront the challenges of the day. Industry leaders have shown confidence in LISA by breaking registration records for the conference, which is fast approaching 500 attendees.

The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), and the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) are calling for changes to state regulation to protect the vital, social purposes of life insurance from transactions known as stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI).

More than $9.7 trillion of individual life insurance was in force on approximately 168 million policies at the end of 2004.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in excess value has been paid by life settlement providers to senior citizens for life insurance policies that they no longer need or want. The excess costs flow directly to the owners of the policies, senior citizens, rather than to the insurance carriers who otherwise profit when policies lapse or are surrendered.

DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (“DLJMB”) today announced that its affiliate Orchard Acquisition Company has completed its acquisition of Peach Holdings, Inc. (AIM: PSF), the parent company of Peachtree Settlement Funding (“Peachtree”), in a cash merger at £3.85 per share. Orchard Acquisition Company is a newly formed company owned by an investor group led by DLJMB, which also includes the senior management of Peach Holdings, Credit Suisse, LLR Partners and Greenhill Capital Partners.