Life Settlements

Don’t Leave Out an Important Piece of Your Client’s Portfolio
by Curtis M. Cole

Are your clients reading the same economic headlines as ours? Here are two sobering market alerts from
the Wall Street Journal:
• June 6, 2008 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 400 points after a massive surge in oil prices and data showing that the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped in May.
• June 20, 2008 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 200 points, pushed lower by another steep decline in financial shares and a big rebound in crude-oil prices to end trading below the 12000 mark for the first time since March 17.

Are your clients puzzled about how to protect their portfolios in these turbulent times? With many experts predicting that we’re headed for a recession, wouldn’t it be nice to have a product that is not correlated to stock and bond markets and not affected by interest rate changes or the price of oil? What about a product that is backed by the same A-rated life insurance companies that offer the annuities, which are so popular today?

A predictable and profitable return on investment is what everyone is looking for, but what product offers both? A life settlement investment may be the missing piece that your clients have been looking for. The same life insurance policies that the large financial institutions have been buying up in record numbers can be purchased by individual investors and held in their own portfolios.
So why have the big-boys been buying so many of these policies? We believe it’s because the returns are predictable, profitable, and not correlated to the market. Institutional and private investors have gotten double-digit returns on these policies with no market risk. Now, smaller investors can also enter the field through direct fractional ownership, which is a great opportunity for your clients and for you.

Since most large brokerage houses don’t offer this product, the field is wide open for many life agents and independent broker/dealers to have a unique product to help their clients diversify their portfolios. We found that the vast majority of clients have not heard about life settlement investments, but are very receptive to the idea when it’s presented as part of an overall investment strategy.

Unique Benefits

This is a fresh opportunity to contact existing clients with a unique new product that has not been presented to them over and over again. It’s rare these days to find a product that offers this degree of safety and an exceptional return.

Putting In The Last Piece

As with any product you offer, the support and training you receive will make all the difference in your success. Be sure to align yourself with a proven field marketing organization (FMO) before you dive in headlong. Here are some questions you should ask when considering an FMO to work through for your life settlement sales:
• Is it 100% dedicated to supporting and training field agents solely for life settlement investments?
• Does it have a full time staff to assist you?
• Does it have a proven track record? Has it trained and supported the top producers in the industry?
• Does it have a tutorial-driven training site available to you 24/7?
• Does it offer full-time inside sales support?
• Does it compete with you for individual investors by conducting their own direct sales campaigns?
• Does it have a recruiting Website to help you build a sales team if you choose to do so?
• Does it have an informational Website for clients to research life settlement investments?
If you are thinking that life settlements could be the puzzle piece to help complete your clients’ portfolio picture, you stand to be well rewarded for your forward thinking. Your clients will thank you every time the market fluctuates.
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Curtis M. Cole is the president of New Asset Advisors, LLC in Dallas, Texas. He is an expert in life settlement investments and can be reached at 877-319-3999 or curtis@new-asset.com.