Michelangelo's David

A symbol of "the dignity of man," representing the Renaissance ideal of human excellence, freedom, and the power to shape one's own life, moving away from more pessimistic medieval views.

An enlightened approach to life settlements for top financial advisors.

We enable HNW/UHNW wealth advisors, principled life insurance professionals, and Trust companies to extract maximum value from older clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance, delivering transparent and effective price discovery, expedient execution, charging a rational fee.

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About Us

Who We Are

Experienced capital markets professionals with expertise in the institutional market for in-force life insurance, for seven years with a private equity buyer and since 2016 enabling advisors at top RIAs, various fiduciaries, and principled life insurance advisors to confidently engage the market.

What We Do

Conduct a controlled, disciplined, and intellectually rigorous price discovery process with 20+ high-quality institutional buyers to ensure that your clients receive maximum value for their unwanted and surplus life insurance, pay a rational fee, and consummate the transaction in 60 days.

How We Are Different

We deliver substantively better outcomes – both psychic and financial - in a more transparent, effective, expeditious, confidence-engendering process than any other approach available to policy owners or their advisors – brokers, direct buyers, or single providers.

MORE EFFECTIVE PRICE DISCOVERY, AND GREATER PROCEEDS

Real service wins for the most conscientious advisors.

With an intellectually rigorous, proven price discovery process, based on our experience as buyers for seven years before starting this business and an understanding of how policies are actually valued, that yields substantially higher winning bids than any other means for policy sellers to access buyers of in-force life insurance, coupled with a fee structure that is 1/4 what the brokers charge, your clients receive significantly greater proceeds than any other solution available to policy sellers - importantly, with your consultation, as we are an advisor to you.

The most recent ten engagements below have an average % of face value that is a bit below our average of 28% due to a $51M case on a younger-than-average, healthy male insured that skewed the average a bit.

LAST 10 ENGAGEMENTS

$97,500,000

death benefit sold

$20,090,000

premium over surrender value

$18,500,000

net proceeds to sellers

1.8x

multiple of broker net

IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR...

A life settlement is the sale of an in-force life insurance policy, for an amount greater than surrender value, by the original owners to a third party that becomes the policy owner, paying premiums and receiving future death benefits.

If you are familiar with the market, we undertake the transaction with our clients in a very different manner and with materially better results than the incumbent channel with which you may have experience.

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU

50% of HNW/UHNW HH’s >72 own $1.2T of UL/convertible term insurance, but 85% is subsequently forfeited (40,000/$75B each year), as insureds age and policies' utility declines, for whatever reason.

So, at least 40% of your clients who live past 72 are going to need to discuss what to do with a policy – whether purchased for protection or an estate planning objective – that you and they assess no longer makes sense to maintain.

LOW MARKET PENETRATION

Although there is a universe of institutional buyers of in-force life insurance that would likely value at least $50 billion of those policies at a significant premium to surrender value, a broken incumbent distribution channel that conducts an ineffective and opaque price discovery process, disguised as "negotiations," and charges egregious commissions, has limited the annual market activity to <$5B of policies, as most advisors simply do no want to engage the channel.

WE TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH

1908 Advisors was founded to make life settlements a rational option for fee only wealth advisors and other fiduciaries (and best interest-oriented life insurance professionals) with clients who, for whatever reason, assess that they no longer want or need a policy and would prefer the liquidity that a settlement can generate.

DELIVERING FOR ADVISORS

Since 2016, we have engaged wealth advisors at top firms around the country (as well as a universe of principled, sophisticated life insurance professionals, Trust compamies, and one-off wirehouse advisors) to monetize clients’ policies at an average of 1.8x what the incumbent channel delivers - for an average of 10x surrender value and 25% of face value. We deliver transparent and effective price discovery from a loosely-organized, but regulated universe of ~20 high-quality institutional buyers of in-force life insurance, expedient and professional execution, charging a 7.5% fee (vs. 30%+), completing transactions in 60 days (vs. 130+).

A RELATIONSHIP, NOT A TRANSACTION

While we make a living by executing life settlement transactions, we do not advocate for life settlements as much as we do for conscientious wealth advisors, principled life insurance professionals, and various fiduciaries having a responsible, professional, high-quality means to monetize a policy that you and your clients assess is no longer of sufficient utility to maintain or from which they'd prefer the liquidity that a settlement might generate.

THANK YOU

Thank you for taking a few minutes to peruse our website to learn more about what we do, how different our approach is, and the benefits for you and your clients of those differences.

The most broadly, deeply experienced team in the market

Simply, the best at what we do.

While we occupy only a small corner of the HNW/UHNW wealth management world, we are committed to one thing - delivering maximum proceeds from your clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance in a professionally executed transaction in which you, their advisor, can have absolute faith and confidence.

We started this business because we were frustrated by what we saw as buyers with a large private equity buyer of in-force life insurance for seven years, offended by life settlement brokers’ business practices, opaque and ineffective price discovery, and egregious commissions and simply believed that we could – and should – do it better.

And, importantly, we wanted to have fun doing it - changing a market is hard, but fun - working with people we like and respect personally and professionally, who share our values, and who we’d want to spend time with, if we weren’t working together.

The Team

2016

year founded

80%

auctions successful

7.5%

fee (of value realized)

10x/25%+

premium to surrender/%of face value

Wealth Advisors

Is there any circumstance in which your client would not want to at least be made aware of the option to (and implications) extract significant proceeds from a life insurance policy that is no longer of sufficient utility for them to maintain or that may opportunistically be the source of desired liquidity?

Trustees & Trust Co's

Are there any circumstances in which the Trusts you administer are best served not being aware of the potential value that a settlement of a policy might generate, if the circumstances of the Trust (e.g. illiquid trust or liquidity issues of the owner/donor) or its owners change such that maintaining - or surrendering - the policy might not generate the best outcome for the beneficiaries?

Life Insurance Agents

If you have experience with the transaction with brokers, as you read further, ask yourself which solution do you think your clients would choose, and what would be the impact on the relationships with them, if you didn't at least share with them the differences?

What solution would you use for your or a family member's policy?

Regardless of your role...

If you in any way touch your clients' life insurance, or it plays a role in their financial or estate plan, and you're not looking out for their interests on a policy that no longer makes financial sense for them to maintain, who is and what will be the impact on your client if you aren't?

Making life settlements a rational option for top wealth advisors.

Doing things very differently.

We are experienced capital markets professionals with expertise in the institutional market for in-force life insurance, for seven years with a private equity buyer and since 2016 enabling advisors at top RIAs, various fiduciaries, and principled life insurance advisors to confidently engage the market.

And we engage you the way you engage your clients.

No more ineffective, protracted price discovery disguised as "negotiations" or 33% commissions disguised as 8% (of face value - which is a manifestly silly denominator). No more uncertainty that a single bidder paid the policy's true market value. Just a professional, transparent, expeditious process to ensure comprehensive price discovery - generating substantively higher winning bids - from a universe of 20+ institutional buyers of in-force life insurance and a simple, easily understood fee of 7.5% of the value we help unlock.

About Us

Smarter Planner Podcast

Hear in this episode of the "Smarter Planner Podcast" Belle Osvath, CFP, interview 1908's founder, Scott Sanders, about his company's innovative approach to helping financial planners work with their clients to sell life insurance policies that they and their advisors determine they no longer want or need.

Listen

SMARTER PLANNER PODCAST

Listen

$437,400 winning bid

$32,805 1908 fee

Large national wirehouse

91 year old healthy female

$754,000 UL

Change in beneficiary status

$770,000 winning bid

$57,750 1908 fee

$245 billion AUM RIA

75 year old healthy male

$3,150,000 GUL

Divorce

$700,000 winning bid

$52,500 1908 fee

$9 billion AUM RIA

61 year old male (manageable cancer)

$2,000,000 converted term (UL)

Health diagnosis, preferred liquidity

$900,000 winning bid

$67,500 1908 fee

$25 billion AUM RIA

51 year old female (manageable cancer)

$5,000,000 convertible term

Key Man policy (retained upon sale of business)

$2,948,000 winning bid

$157,500 1908 fee

$9 billion AUM RIA

85 year old healthy female

$5,300,000 GUL

Charitable Trust owned

$2,600,000 winning bid

$50,000 1908 fee

UHNW Life Insurance Advisor

75 year old male/75 year old female

$29,000,000 GUL

Individual owned - wanted to exit premium loan

$5,300,000 winning bid

$265,000 1908 fee

UHNW insurance advisor (part of $140B RIA)

85 year old male/79 yeay old female

$12,000,000 GUL

Trust owned

$90,000 winning bid

$7,500 1908 fee

$140 billion AUM RIA

72 year old healthy male

$1,000,000 UL

Individual owned (was collateral on business loan)

$130,000 winning bid

$12,500 1908 fee

$9 billion AUM RIA

73 year old healthy male

$1,500,000 UL

No longer needed (wife preceded him in death)

Real families, real results.

We regularly generate with our advisor clients hundreds of thousands and often millions of dollars in proceeds from life insurance policies that they would otherwise simply have lapsed or would not have been able to utilize as the basis for a preferred outcome (e.g., re-balancing the assets in a Trust, utilizing the proceeds from a sale to redeploy for a higher projected return).

Whether a $500,000 policy or a $50,000,000 policy - or anywhere in between - we can enable you to deliver comparable results for your older HNW/UHNW clients with life insurance that they no longer need or from which they might prefer the liquidity that the sale of a policy that is otherwise of marginal or declining utility.

Case Studies

CONSCIENTIOUS FINANCIAL ADVISORS OF VARIOUS DISCIPLINES

Our Clients

We count among our clients three of the top five and six of the ten largest RIAs (several others in the top 50 and 100, with more than $1T AUM) and a rapidly growing universe of BI-oriented life insurance professionals at many of the most sophisticated and client-centric insurance agencies in the country, and a number of Trust Companies and advisors at wirehouse firms.

If you put your clients’ interests first in everything you do and would like to enable them to monetize unwanted and surplus life insurance in a way that is consistent your values, we’d love to work with you, too.

Learn More

Top RIAs

Three of the top five, six of the top ten, and 10+ of the top 50 RIAs in the country, collectively with more than $1T AUM, most of which assiduously avoided life settlements altogether prior to learning of our model.

Life Insuranc Agents

Several of the most sophisticated life insurance agents and advisory firms in the country. We are especially appealing to those who hold CFP and ChFC designations, given the requirement of holders to act in clients' best interest.

Trust Companies

We have been engaged by a number of Trustees and are regularly engaged by several Trust Companies and Directed Trust Companies that work with our RIA clients.

A man standing and smiling in front of the meeting room.avif

Wirehouse Advisors

We have had a number of one-off engagements with Wirehouse advisors who preferred the benefits of our approach for their clients, not seeking compensation, like this one.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

"Once it was clear how big a difference your approach makes for our clients, we could never again in good conscience go back to the broker we used before we were introduced to you and the 1908 team."

Client Service Lead

$10 billion in-force life insurance advisor (part of $140B RIA)

"I won’t even imagine the reaction of one of our advisors to learning too late that a life insurance partner that we work with didn't engage 1908 and put a shared client into a brokered life settlement and charged our client those outrageous fees."

Managing Director, Head of Insurance Solutions

$125 billion RIA

"I know our advisors just added a new tool to their toolbox and I’m excited to see our teams collaborate."

Region Head, CFA

$15 billion RIA

"We have seen time and time again direct evidence of the benefits of both higher bids and materially lower fees that accrue to our clients who want to do a life settlement as a result of using 1908’s service."

Senior Insurance Advisor (CFP)

$10 billion RIA

"1908's model has turned this sector upside down amidst all these cowboy brokers."

Managing Director (ChFC, CLU)

$30 billion RIA

"Your approach aligns with where the true advice business for life insurance is going, including bringing real transparency to the otherwise murky industry of life settlements."

Vice President (CFP, CLU)

Large national life insurance broker

"We *love* working with you and your team."

Co-Founding Partner (CLU, ChFC)

$10 billion in-force life insurance advisor (part of $140B RIA)

"You are our only partner in the life settlement space and have built an outstanding reputation with our advisors. We appreciate your partnership and the great work you do for our clients!"

Director of Financial Planning (CFP, CPA, LLM)

$25 billion RIA

40% of HNW/UHNW WHO LIVE PAST >72 WILL LAPSE OR SURRENDER A POLICY

More frequent opportunity than most are aware.

Given that 50% of HNW/UHNW HH’s >72 own $1.2T of UL/convertible term insurance, but 85% is subsequently forfeited (40,000/$75B each year), at least 40% of your clients who live past 72 are going to need to discuss what to do with a policy – whether purchased for protection or an estate planning objective – that you and they assess no longer makes sense to maintain.

So, with your knowledge of your clients' financial planning objectives, you are uniquely positioned to identify those changes that give rise to the 85% and the opportunities to instead monetize a policy, like those scrolling here (including liquidity preference), just a sample of our last 15 engagements, and to discuss the utility of a potential settlement.

Who, When, How to Engage

Preferred to fund different strategy for Trust after death of husband on 2nd to die policy

Divorce - rather than maintaining policy, settle and split proceeds

Change in beneficiaries obviated need for death benefit

Preferred liquidity of a sale to SV of a policy that owner no longer wanted to maintain

Unpalatable increase in premiums, policy no longer "worth it"

Opportunistic windfall, borne of health diagnosis and unwanted policy (term conversion)

Illiquid trust that owner could not/would not fund more

Adjusting large life insurance portfolio & prefer proceeds of sale to SV

Charitable Trust that donor no longer wished to fund/still healthy & lived much longer than anticipated

Corporate-Owned Key Man on departed CEO; policy obviously no longer necessary, but of value

Buy/Sell policy after sale of business of no value to insured/owner's estate

Proceeds to fund repayment of poorly performing premium finance loan to avoid collateral call

Key Man policy on owner after sale of business with subsequent health diagnosis that created value in policy

With growth of other assets in the estate, owners simply no longer wanted policy for beneficiaries

Term conversion opportunity for windfall

HNW/UHNW CLIENTS IN DANGER FROM POORLY MONITORED INSURANCE

POOR FIDUCIARY OVERSIGHT OF LIFE INSURANCE, REAL IMPLICATIONS

A recent study shows in just how precarious a position many policies are - at least partly because they are so poorly monitored as the owner's needs evolve with time and life events – and suggests the value that attentive, conscientious advisors can have in, at minimum, preventing catastrophic downside losses after years of premiums being paid.

43% are projected to lapse prior to maturity
37% are projected to lapse before the insured’s life expectancy
49% of no-lapse guarantee (NLG) provisions have been compromised, with significant implications on cost (and settlement value, thereby limiting options)
95% of policies are never meaningfully reviewed for performance or relevance after initial purchase

The implications/benefits for your clients of greater engagement – with the right 3rd party partners for domain expertise – are financially and psychically profound, whether mitigating downside risk, by adjusting the insurance portfolio to better fit evolving needs, or capitalizing on the upside of monetizing a policy that no longer fits your client's needs.

1.3x

average multiple of what broker actually got/could have gotten

Higher winning bids.

Smarter, more effective and efficient price discovery.

Our single-round, blind, best and final auction is not only much faster than the brokers' process, but also uniquely effective at compelling participants to bid to their true private value, not anchored to others' bids, resulting in substantially higher winning bids - often a multiple of what a broker could get through "negotiations" - than brokers' protracted, open, multi-round bidding process.

And the resulting difference is often not just a fraction higher, but a multiple of other bids, putting hundreds of thousands and even millions more in your clients' account.

Case Studies

Simple, transparent, expeditious, effective, fair fees

We enable the price discovery benefits of real competition among multiple credible buyers without the opacity, inefficiency, and high cost of a broker. Importantly, you are intimately engaged in the process – with end-to-end transparency and full audit trail – and understood by your client to have been the driver of a high-value service win and significant windfall from an asset that would otherwise have been forfeited for little or no benefit.

And we do it in weeks, not months, with a single round, blind, best and final auction, executed in a secure ShareFile bid room, not via e-mail and phone calls.

Our Process

80%

successful auctions

20+

buyers reached

15/60

days to complete auction/fund

7.5%