Author: Greg Winterton

Asset manager Twelve Capital has bought back the 30% stake in the firm previously owned by Graubündner Kantonalbank (GKB). “We are very pleased to execute this transaction. The Twelve Capital team is excited by the prospects of the firm and fully committed to continue to deliver value to our clients,” said Urs Ramseier, Twelve Capital Executive Chairman. GKB originally bought the stake back in January 2022. 

European pharmaceutical company Norgine has insured the benefits of its defined benefit pension scheme with Canada Life in a full buy-in transaction of £28m. The transaction, which follows a competitive tender process run by Mercer, secures the benefits of 308 members, of which 152 are deferred members. “We are delighted the scheme chose us as their de risking partner, securing the benefits from both in payment and deferred members. We continue to focus on developing our capability to meet the growing market demand and enabling schemes and sponsors to secure the long-term future of their members with a financially strong…

April delivered double-digit growth in US life insurance applications versus the same month last year, according to the latest MIB Life Index. Year-on-year activity was up +10.3%, the first time since April 2021 that double-digit year-on-year growth has been achieved. The growth was largely delivered by Term Life and Whole Life policies, which advanced +8.4% and +29.4%, respectively. Applications for Universal Life insurance, the most common type of policy seen in the life settlement market, declined -4.2% last month. At the cohort level, Universal Life saw growth for ages 31-50, but declines for ages 51+ and 61+.

US-based industry group the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) published its 2023 Market Data Collection Survey report in early May. The report, now in its third year, collects secondary market transaction data from the organisation’s life settlement provider members, which it says represents more than 95% of transactions in the secondary market overall.  The headline this year is that the life settlement market paid out more than $843m in the calendar year 2023 to US consumers who sold their life insurance policy, up from $790m last year, and $750m in 2022.  “The data collected by LISA in our Members Annual…

The life settlement market has seen a few litigation cases in the state of Delaware in recent years whereby the estate of a deceased has brought a claim against a life settlement asset manager to recover the death benefit of the life insurance policy.   In these cases, plaintiffs argued that because these policies specifically were purchased using a premium finance arrangement (under which the insured borrows money to pay the premiums) they violated Delaware law on insurable interest when they were issued.  Recent Delaware decisions suggest that in these situations, the death benefit should go to the estate, so the…

Life expectancy is one of the largest influences on the performance of a life settlement investment, and the space continues to evolve with advances in new technology and society’s understanding of mortality. Life Risk News’ Greg Winterton spoke to Chris Conway, Chief Development Officer, ISC Services, Vince Granieri, CEO, Predictive Resources, John Lynch, Director of Actuarial and Underwriting Services, Longevity Holdings, Sean Malone, President and CEO, Longevity Services and S. Jay Olshansky, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, Lapetus Solutions to get their views on the current state of their sector, its challenges and opportunities. GW: Let’s start this year’s roundtable from…

Life settlement funds have long enjoyed a home in Ireland. Greg Winterton caught up with Ailish Finnerty, Partner at law firm Arthur Cox, to learn more about why, and whether the trend will persist.  GW: Ailish, let’s start with the obvious. Why do so many life settlement funds call Ireland home?  AF: US life settlement portfolios represent a very attractive investment to US and non-US investors alike. In bringing investors together, a key focus of the asset manager will be to ensure the fund is located in a favourable jurisdiction that has a long established and well-respected legal regime in…

UK Regulators analyse Funded Reinsurance risks in Pension Risk Transfers; PRA raises portfolio recapture concerns.

Industry group the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) has published the 2023 edition of its Market Data Collection survey. The headline is that life settlement received over $842m from licensed LISA member providers for the sale of their unwanted life insurance policies, up from $790m in 2022. Additionally, consumers received $707m more from the life settlement option vs. lapsing or surrendering their life insurance coverage, the largest sum recorded since LISA began collecting market data. LISA provider members concluded 3,218 life settlement transactions in 2023, purchasing a total face value of $4.67bn. “The data that we collected in our Market…

AXA and Athora have mutually agreed to terminate a sale agreement related to the purchase of a closed life and pensions portfolio from AXA Germany. AXA will instead retain this portfolio, the sale of which was announced in July 2022. Separately, AXA subsidiary AXA Life Europe has entered into a reinsurance agreement with New Reinsurance Company, a subsidiary of Munich Re, that covers approximately EUR 3bn of Variable Annuity reserves. This transaction will result in a reduction in underlying earnings of ca. EUR 20m per annum from 2024 onwards which AXA intends to offset with a EUR 0.2bn share buyback…