A majority of states now have laws regulating licensing, disclosures and transparency in life settlement transactions.

Legislation does not traditionally assign the responsibility of informing consumers that life settlement options are available. That is beginning to change.

As many people know, there are 3 types of life insurance policies that are sellable in life settlements. Whole Life, Universal and Convertible Term Policies, with the Universal policies being the most desirable.

Early last week we announced that Amrita Financial had entered into a strategic partnership with Finance Logix. There has been a great "buzz" around here ever since the partnership began to develop legs. Now that we have made the formal announcement we are busily working to implement the partnership.

In 2009, New York State passed much anticipated life settlement legislation, which brought life settlement brokers, life settlement providers and life settlement intermediaries under the regulatory authority of the New York Insurance Department.

This regulatory body is in the process of administering licensing requirements for industry participants conducting business in New York state.

Last week Amrita Financial released the February data for the Amrita Life Settlement Index. It showed a dramatic decline of 13% from January. Some have wondered how the index could be so volatile and have asked for more information about the way it works. In this blog post I will examine some of the factors that contributed to the volatility and resulting decline expressed in the latest life settlement index results.

A life settlement occurs when some sells their unwanted or unneeded life insurance policy for an immediate payment. What happens when the life insurance policy was unwanted or unneeded to begin with? By now, most are familiar with STOLI transactions which have come under immense public, regulatory and statutory scrutiny. However, policy flipping in which someone with an insurable interest buys unneeded life insurance for themselves or loved ones with the intent of selling it in a life settlement has garnered much less attention.

As evidenced by the 13% decline in the Amrita Life Settlement Index’s February results, the life settlement industry still maintains a precarious posture. While a number of life settlement industry insiders have gone on record saying there will be a recovery in 2010, most agree it isn’t here yet. We’ve seen the industry recently shudder with the news of Goldman Sachs’ departure from life settlements.

Do I have an attractive policy?

I'm going to start a series of posts to give people an idea about how attractive their life insurance policy would be in a life settlement transaction. If you aren't interested in all the gory details, you can cut to the chase and go straight to our life settlement appraisal tool. It's free, anonymous, and you get a response instantly.

Let's start out with the things that have the biggest affect on valuation.

The Amrita Life Settlement Index has garnered more attention than anyone here at Amrita Financial ever imagined it would. Our goal was to create a tool that could be used by all market participants, such as policy sellers, financial advisors, life settlement brokers, life settlement providers, investors, etc., to more effectively understand the life settlement marketplace’s posture. It has certainly provoked thought and stirred conversation thus far.

Extreme Measures

How many of you have had to abandon use of an e-mail account, because your e-mail address fell into the wrong hands? It starts out innocently enough, "Fill out this form and we'll send you the info you need." Next thing you know, you're address has been sold to God knows how many "3rd parties", and you're being bombarded with solicitations for all manner of crapola. One source sites spam/junk e-mail constituting 78% of all e-mail sent.