Life Settlements

Senior Life settlements (not to be confused with Viaticals) have been accessible for about twenty years. Apart from buying whole policies, which is advisable only for portfolios larger than US$ 20m, this asset class has been marketed in the form of open-ended and closed-ended funds, as well as structured products.

As with many other emerging illiquid and inefficient and asset classes, life settlements have had its problems with mismanagement and some cases of fraud. However, as the life settlement industry matures, better managed products came to market, providing investors with its highly attractive benefits of non-correlation, low volatility and known maturity value.