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.
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 maximum value for your older clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance, consummating the transaction in 60 days and being paid a 7.5% fee.
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.
Service wins and AUM for conscientious wealth advisors
For too long, wealth advisors and principled life insurance professionals have been faced with the Faustian bargain of ignoring altogether the benefit to clients of the sale of an unwanted life insurance policy or engaging a fundamentally broken, opaque, and egregiously expensive distribution channel that insults their intelligence and business ethics. So, they mostly chose to ignore it.
We were founded to change that.
2016
Year Founded
1.3x/1.8x
Multiple of broker winning bids/net $
10+
Top 50 RIAs served
7.5%
Fee (Gross Bid - CSV)
The most broadly, deeply experienced team in the market
Uniquely qualified, delivering differentiated service and substantive value
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.
We are, by a good bit, the most broadly and deeply experienced team in the industry, possessing a comprehensive understanding of how markets function and of how to extract maximum value for sellers from an inefficient market.
Changing a market is hard, but fun, and we work only 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.
WHETHER AND WITH WHOM TO MONETIZE CLIENTS UNWANTED LIFE INSURANCE
Strategic Imperative
In a rapidly evolving, increasingly competitive wealth management landscape in which clients are placing a higher premium on financial planning expertise and execution, assuming that you can partner with a firm that shares your values and professionalism, is there any circumstance in which you would not want to enable a client to extract maximum value from a life insurance policy that is no longer of sufficient utility for them to maintain?
If your answer is "no," we're here to help.
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.
66%
of HNW desire greater personalization in their wealth management relationship (PWC)
56%
of advisors’ top growth priority is to expand service offering (Natixis)
80%
of HNW practices plan to expand service offerings over the next five years (Cerulli)
47%
of HNW desire a more holistic service offering from primary wealth manager (McKinsey)
WE UNDERSTAND THE RETICENCE, BUT OUR APPROACH ADDRESSES IT
A dramatically underutilized opportunity.
40% of HNW/UHNW who live past 72 will lapse a UL/VUL or convertible term life insurance policy before it pays a death benefit, two thirds of which would likely sell to a universe of high-quality institutional buyers at a significant premium to surrender value (average 8x - 10x surrender value and 28% of policy face value).
But, due to low awareness and a discomfort with the incumbent distribution channel, less than 10% of the $50 billion that would sell to high-quality institutional buyers of in-force life insurance every year are actually settled, costing HNW/UHNW policy owners $US billions every year.
We are here to make sure that your clients aren't among them.
50%
HNW/UHNW >72 own at least one life insurance policy
>80%
of policies are lapsed; 40,000 owners/$75B a year
66%
would sell at a significant premium to surrender value
<10%
are settled, costing HNW/UHNW policy owners $US billions
making life settlements a rational option for conscientious advisors.
Different experience. Different values. Very different approach.
As buyers of in-force life insurance for seven years before founding this business, it was clear to us that the incentive structure of the incumbent channel levies a wholly unreasonable tax on policy sellers.
So, with different values, a fundamentally different philosophy that underlies everything we do, and unmatched breadth and depth of experience, we deliver a materially differentiated and better service, ensuring that you can offer a life settlement solution worthy of your reputation and that your clients will receive the maximum value for their asset.
No more ineffective, protracted price discovery disguised as "negotiations" or 33% commissions misleadingly described as 8%. Just transparent, expeditious price discovery, generating substantively higher winning bids and a simple, easily understood fee of 7.5% of the value we help you unlock.
Market Engagement
Rationalizing a Loosely-Organized, but Highly-Regulated Market
We access only the highest quality, most reliable capital through the most reputable regulated intermediaries (Providers), never fringe capital or marginal, disruptive buyers, to ensure maximum expediency and lowest transaction risk in the market. Further, our approach ensures that your clients benefit from the inefficiencies of the market, in which different buyers often ascribe wildly divergent values to the same policy.
1.8x THE NET PROCEEDS THAT BROKERS DELIVER
Results for real families
We are not advocates for life settlements as much as we are for conscientious wealth management, life insurance, and Trust professionals to have a responsible, professionally-executed means to maximize the value of a life insurance policy, like the examples scrolling here, that no longer serves a client's protection or estate planning need for which it was purchased or for which there are preferred means to achieve an estate planning objective, as the insured ages and circumstances change.
$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)
UNIQUELY EFFECTIVE PRICE DISCOVERY
MATERIALLY HIGHER WINNING BIDS
While the badly and fundamentally flawed broker approach of multi-round, open bidding takes far too long and rarely find a policy's true value, our single-round, blind, best-and-final auction is not only much faster, but it is also uniquely effective at compelling participants to bid to their true private value, not bidding anchored to others' known bids, yielding substantially higher winning bids.
The difference is often not just a fraction higher, but a multiple of what a broker could produce, putting hundreds of thousands and even millions more in your clients' account and your AUM.
"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 $340B 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)
$25 billion RIA
Our Clients
We count among our clients the most highly-regarded HNW/UHNW RIAs in the country. Three of the top five, six of the top 10, and more than a dozen of the top 50 RIAs, with more than 1.5$T AUM. All firms that assiduously avoided life settlements until they learned of our approach and the benefits for their clients.
We also serve a rapidly growing universe of principled, Best Interest-oriented life insurance professionals at the most sophisticated insurance advisory firms in the country, especially among those with CFP and ChFC designations, as well as Trust Companies, trustees, and wirehouse advisors.
The trust that the best firms and most conscientious advisors with clients of substantial means - and high expectations - place in us is an ongoing source of pride for us. Of equal pride is the number who have recommended us to others and that every single advisor we have ever engaged has come back to do other settlements with us.
10+
Top 50 RIAs
10+
Top Life Insurance Firms
Several
Other fiduciaries and wirehouse advisors
A message for life insurance professionals...
"I just cringed every time I had to talk to a client about the broker's commissions. I hated it. And I had no hope of describing with any confidence the process and timelines."
UHNW life insurance producer who recently started using 1908 after years of using brokers for his clients' life settlements
DO THE RIGHT THING AND MAKE EQUITABLE COMP
One simple way to stand out as a principled, Best Interest-oriented life insurance professional
Which approach do you believe will give clients and wealth advisory partners alike the confidence that you have a client's best interests at heart? Which would you use for your own policy? A family member's, if you wanted to ensure that they received the maximum possible proceeds?
We will work with you to set an appropriate fee for your efforts in the case to ensure that you are properly compensated - we typically split a 10% - 15% fee with our life insurance partners. Given our higher winning bids, even at a lower % than the brokers pay, you will likely receive comparable or even more compensation than with broker transactions.
And you get to do the right thing for your client.
HNW/UHNW CLIENTS IN DANGER FROM POORLY MONITORED INSURANCE
IMPERILED TRUST OWNED LIFE INSURANCE
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 and means evolved with time and life events – and suggests the value that attentive, conscientious advisors can have, 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 (significant implications on cost and settlement value, thereby limiting options)
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.
SIMPLER, FASTER, BETTER.
Smarter process
We enable the price discovery benefits of 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 seen by your client to have been the driver of a high-value service and substantial 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.
80%
auctions successful
15/60
days to bids/funding
7.5%
fee (gross bid-CSV)
Clients Are Alone Without You
Without your engagement, your clients are on their own and face only bad or, at best, sub-optimal, outcomes when contemplating what to do with unwanted and surplus life insurance. 90% will lapse or surrender it without ever having considered an alternative, while the other 10% will receive far less for it than they should, by engaging only a single buyer or engaging a broker that will not conduct effective price discovery and will extract egregious economics.
WITH ANY FORETHOUGHT AT ALL, ENGAGING AT THE RIGHT TIME IS EASY
A high-value element of your clients' financial plans, if you simply ask
Whether purchased for protection or estate planning (or business planning), the utility of a policy often declines relative to the benefit of the insurance as the owner ages, resulting in the 85% lapse rate of policies owned by 50% of HNW/UHNW >72.
A no longer relevant key man or buy/sell policy. A change in beneficiaries. Diminished willingness to fund a policy or a trust. An illiquid trust as the insured lives longer than anticipated. An unpalatable increase in premiums. A simple preference for the liquidity that a sale might generate. And as many other reasons as clients who own a policy.
Your knowledge of clients' financial planning objectives and protection needs as well as their means/liquidity and life events that affect the utility of a life insurance uniquely positions you to identify those changes that give rise to the lapses and the corresponding opportunities to instead monetize a policy.
72+
if insured is standard health for age
<72
if insured is of impaired health
UL/VUL
any UL chassis or convertible term policy
>$500K
policy size
Insights and analysis on the market and options for your clients with surplus and unwanted life insurance.
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