Author: Chris Wells

Managing Editor

The European Life Settlement Association (ELSA), the leading advocacy group for life settlement investors, has announced the agenda for its upcoming Secondary Life Markets Conference 2024. Held in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday 12th September, the agenda for this year’s event has been designed to cover the most pressing topics impacting both investors with exposure to the market and asset managers investing in the space. This year’s event will begin with Progress and Plans: The Past And Upcoming 12 Months at ELSA, a keynote address from Corry Capital Advisors’ Founder and CEO Bill Corry, who is also ELSA’s current Chair, before…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 7, July 2024 It’s now a year since UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority brought in its new Consumer Duty, a regulation requiring all financial services firms to ‘act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers’ for all new (and now, closed) product offerings. While there are fundamental benefits of this to the country’s equity release market, it’s not a needle mover in terms of greasing the wheels of supply. Greg Winterton spoke to Ben Grainger, Partner at EY, for his thoughts on the topic in UK Consumer Duty Barely Impacting an Equity…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2024 Industry publication The Deal publishes an annual report that looks at the number of transactions in the life settlement industry’s secondary market. This year, the headline numbers show a market in growth mode, as both the number of deals and the total value of them have increased for the third consecutive year. Greg Winterton spoke to Rainer Gruenig, CEO at Plenum Investments, Rob Haynie, Managing Director at Life Insurance Settlements, Inc. and Anton Pozine, Portfolio Manager at Ress Capital to get an asset manager’s perspective on the state of the secondary…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2024 In April, industry group LISA was at an NCOIL meeting proposing amendments to NCOIL’s Life Settlements Model Act that would support growth in the secondary market. It followed that up in early May by publishing the 2023 edition of its Market Data Collection Survey. Greg Winterton joined the dots, with comments from Bryan Nicholson, Executive Director at LISA, John Dallas, CEO at Berkshire Settlements and Chair of LISA, Alan Buerger, Coventry First Co-Founder and Executive Chairman and ACLI spokesperson Whit Corman in Life Settlement Market Pays More Than $800m To…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2024 Unsurprisingly, given its growth and potential for capital optimisation, UK regulators have been carefully watching the increased use of funded reinsurance, writing a letter to Chief Risk Officers at insurers in June last year, and following that up in November by issuing a consultation paper. Aaron Woolner spoke to Michael Abramson, Partner at Hymans Robertson and Craig Turnbull, Partner at Barnett Waddingham to get their thoughts on the current state of the space in UK Regulators Look To Understand Funded Re Risks.  At the beginning of February, UK trade group…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024 The first two weeks of March have provided new constituent developments in the UK’s pension risk transfer market as industry players compete for talent. Greg Winterton spoke to TC Jefferson, Managing Partner at executive search firm The Plenum Group and to learn more, with additional commentary from James Mullins, Head of Risk Transfer at consulting firm Hymans Robertson in Personnel Battle Heating Up As Constituents Change in Booming UK Pension Risk Transfer Market. The European Life Settlement Association (ELSA, publisher of Life Risk News) has recently published Selling a Life Insurance…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024 Both the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent changing macroeconomic environment have had something of a longer-term impact on the life ILS market, in terms of deal activity particularly. Greg Winterton spoke to Craig Gillespie, Head of Life and Alternative Credit at Leadenhall Capital Partners, and Luca Tres, Head of Strategic Risk and Capital Life Solutions, EMEA at Guy Carpenter, to get their thoughts on the topic in Despite Bumpy Couple of Years, Lessons Learned Stand Life ILS Market in Good Stead.  Nearly seven million Americans over 65 had Alzheimer’s dementia…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2024 Happy New Year.  Our first cover story of 2024 looks at what’s in store for the US pension risk transfer market this year. Aaron Woolner spoke to Sheena McEwen, Head of Distribution at Legal and General Retirement of America and Jake Pringle, Principal and Consulting Actuary at Milliman, to get their views in Still Plenty of Capacity for Growth in Robust US PRT Market.  Closed-ended funds are increasingly common in the life settlement market, but there are significant idiosyncrasies that investors need to know when deciding whether an open or…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 2, Issue 12, December 2023 Industry group the European Life Settlement Association (ELSA, publisher of Life Risk News) published new information recently that provides insight into the number and activities of the life settlement provider market. Greg Winterton spoke to John Dallas, President of Berkshire Settlements and incoming Chair at the Life Insurance Settlement Association, and myself for our thoughts on the topic in New Insights Into Life Settlement Providers Shows Market Offering Solid Asset Manager and Consumer Choice.  Much has been written about the higher interest rate environment contributing to the improved funding status…

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Download Life Risk News Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2023 A new report from asset manager, Conning, suggests that the outlook for growth in the life settlement market is generally positive. Life Settlements: Steady Growth Ahead is the 18th annual report that the Hartford, CT-based company has published covering the life settlement market. Scott Hawkins, Head of Insurance Research, and Roberta Lauria, AVP, Insurance Research at Conning offer their thoughts to Greg Winterton, with colour from Jonas Martenson, Founder and Sales Director Ress Capital and Alejandra Limones, Partner at Demeter Capital in Outlook for Growth in Life Settlement Market Positive. …

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