Maximizing the value of your older clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance
We have been a trusted partner to top wealth management firms since 2016, enabling advisors to confidently undertake the process to realize the full value of the life insurance that no longer meets the needs or objectives of older HNW/UHNW policy owners.
TRUSTED BY THE BEST WEALTH MANAGEMENT FIRMS AND ADVISORS IN THE COUNTRY
Confidence is our most important deliverable
We help wealth management professionals confidently and efficiently monetize the life insurance policies (industry average of 28% of policy face value and 10x the surrender value) that are no longer of sufficient utility or of too high a cost to justify maintaining — with the transparency, sophisticated price discovery, expedient execution, and reasonable fees that fiduciary standards demand.
Experienced
We are capital markets professionals with deep and broad experience in this inefficient, but highly institutional, market. We set out in 2016, after seven years on the buy-side, to change the origination side of the market, deploying the most effective price discovery process and engaging the best wealth management professionals.
To Your Standards
Disciplined transaction calendar, end-to-end transparency, a complete audit trail, bidding all done on secure ShareFile platform, and the fastest process in the market, with actionable bids in <15 days and funding in 60 days, give you confidence that it will be executed to your standards.
Effective
The highest winning bids and lower fees (7.5% vs. 33%) result in higher net proceeds to your clients; for life insurance producers, given our higher winning bids, your comp splitting 10% - 15% with us is comparable to what you receive with brokers, while doing the right thing for your client and winning the trust of other advisors.
Together, we deliver great results.
Leading wealth management firms increasingly recognize the need to evaluate clients' life insurance as part of financial and estate planning — identifying policies whose original purpose no longer justifies the cost, and facing a choice: lapse, surrender, or sell (settle).
When that moment arrives and you assess that exploring a sale makes sense, top wealth advisors trust us to run the industry's most professional engagement, generating the highest bids and greatest net proceeds — often hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars more than a straight surrender (and other means to engage buyers) would return.
SUBSTANTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY WINS AND ORGANIC AUM GROWTH
Remarkable results for real families
Conscientious wealth advisors have for years been faced with a Faustian bargain of foregoing altogether the benefit of the sale of a client's unwanted life insurance policy or engaging a distribution channel that simply does not operate with the same level of sophistication or client advocacy that you do.
We have made the decision of whether to undertake the transaction is much simpler and clearer by delivering a price discovery process and client engagement that aligns with your standards for sophistication, discipline, intellectual rigor, transparency, and fees.
"My mind is analytical and I love it when someone dives deep into an industry looking for ways to improve it. You have certainly done that with your approach. You did a great job explaining to us why your firm is structurally different from the brokers we used in the past and I appreciate that and agree with your approach. We'll help many families together."
UHNW Insurance Advisor (ChFC, CLU)
$350B RIA
Simply, we are the best at what we do and work with the best wealth advisory firms in the country
We started this business in 2016 because we were frustrated by what we experienced as buyers with a large private equity buyer of in-force life insurance for seven years, offended by the incumbent channel's opaque and ineffective price discovery, selective disclosures to clients to whom they claimed to be acting as fiduciaries, and egregious commissions. We knew that top wealth advisors would never engage the market in a meaningful way without real change, and believed that we could – and should – do it better.
And we set out to work with the best, most highy-regarderd wealth management firms in the country. Today, we are engaged by 3 of the top 5, 6 of the top 10, and more than a dozen of the top 50 RIAs in the country, as well as a universe of the most sophisticated and principled life insurance professionals, trust companies, private banks, and the occasional wirehouse advisor.
12
top 50 RIAs
10+
BGA's/IMO's and top life insurance advisors
Several
Trust companies, private banks, and others
100%
repeat clients
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 $350B 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."
Head of Insurance Solutions
$190 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
"Your bids are much higher and you deliver them for our clients *months* faster than we have from other firms that we used in the past."
Director of Risk Advisory
$585B AUM wealth management arm of $1.8T asset manager
"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 $350B 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)
$30 billion RIA
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #1
$2,000,000 GUL
$582,000 winning bid | $540,000 net proceeds
Our Client
$500 billion AUM wealth advisor arm of global asset manager
Insured
93 year old healthy female
Description
Assessing the implications of a pending premium increase, the two adult children of the insured simply no longer wanted to pay premiums after 15 years and $400,000 in premiums having been paid. Instead of a surrendering the policy, which had no cash value, their advisor pursued a sale with us, generating multiple bids from buyers, ranging from $240,000 to $582,000.
Our Client
$30 billion RIA
Insured
51 year old female, cancer diagnosis
Description
Shortly after the sale of her successful business to a private equity firm, the client of our first RIA client firm received a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. She had a key man policy (convertible term with ten years of term left) when her advisor reached out to us to assess her options after receiving an offer of $150,000 from a buyer that advertises on TV.
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #2
$5,000,000 Term policy
$900,000 winning bid | $832,500 net proceeds
Our Client
$10 billion RIA
Insured
73 year old healthy male
Description
Several years after his wife had passed, the retired farmer had sold his large farming operation, spending most of his time traveling to visit his children and grandchildren around the country and no longer wanted to fund the second-to-die policy, preferring the $20,000 remaining cash in the policy or something greater, if a settlement were a possibility - which it was.
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #3
$1,500,000 UL
$130,000 winning bid | $117,500 net proceeds
Our Client
$350 billion RIA
Insured
91 year old healthy male and female
Description
The retired, former CEO of a large public corporation, and his wife, with a large life insurance portfolio that was part of a complex estate plan, wanted to "trim the sails" a bit on their holdings. They chose to sell about 20% of what they owned, using the proceeds to fund other policies that they would maintain.
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #4
$9,800,000 GUL
$4,300,000 winning bid | $3,977,500 net proceeds
OUR SUCCESS IS GROUNDED IN DELIVERING FOR YOU
What Your Clients Say about Us
"We were out of luck until 1908 came along. I think ours is a good example of what can be gained from your process and what it takes to get through it, which really was not bad."
$540,000 for $2M GUL
$585 billion wealth manager
"Thank you for all you've done to make this deal happen. You have an incredible work ethic and we are so fortunate that Rich made the introduction. Too bad we can't rate you on Yelp!"
$92,500 for $1M UL
$195 billion UHNW RIA
"I can't believe that they got that much for the policy. I was excited about the possibility of $125,000 and in a million years did not think I could get more than three times that for it."
$439,000 for $1.5M UL
UHNW life insurance advisor/GA
Podcast Appearance: Smarter Planner Podcast
We speak your language
"In this episode, Belle interviews 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."
Host Belle Osvath, CFP, interviews wealth management industry thought leaders and professionals targeting meaningful and useful information to help you stay on top of your game.
ROBUST, COMPREHENSIVE, EFFICIENT PRICE DISCOVERY
Higher winning bids, by design, discipline, and rigor - and, combined with fees 1/4 the incumbent channel, materially higher net proceeds
In 90% of auctions that produce bids, we see divergent values, with a winning bid that is often not just a fraction higher than the next highest, but a multiple. In only 10% we do see convergence among multiple bidders, indicative that the incumbent channel would likely also have discovered that high value (after weeks and even months of "negotiations" that rarely and only by coincidence reveal a policy's true market value).
Importantly, those higher winning bids, in combination with our much lower fee structure, result in substantially higher net proceeds.
1.3x
premium to incumbent channel of our winning bids
1.8x
premium to incumbent channel's net proceeds
7.5%
fee (of Gross Offer - CSV), minimum of $12,500
GIVE YOUR CLIENTS THE COMFORT THAT THEY WON'T MISS OUT
Nobody is better positioned to identify opportunities than you...and, partnered with us, nobody is better positioned to deliver the resuls that your clients expect of you
Your intimate knowledge of clients' financial planning objectives and life events that change the utility of a policy, whether purchased for protection, estate planning, or business planning, uniquely positions you to identify and create significant value from that otherwise unnecessary or unwanted asset - and in only a small fraction of the time is absolute affordability the underlying driver. It's almost always something more nuanced.
Importantly, there are real and measurable costs to your clients of not engaging them about it - 90% miss out altogether ($45B/year), the other 10% engage a single buyer ($5B/year) that won't make a competitive bid or broker that will extract egregious commissions from the transaction.
The art and science of extracting maximum value for your clients from a niche, thinly traded market
We deploy the only institutional-quality process worthy of the best, most conscientious wealth management professionals, engaging only the most reliable capital through regulated intermediaries (Providers), never fringe capital or counterparties that we aren't 100% comfortable putting across the table from you and your client.
The lowest transaction risk, greatest transparency, most effective price discovery, and highest confidence in the professional execution of a high-value engagement.
10
bidders reached
90%
auctions produce bids
15
days to actionable bids
60
days to funding
Doing the right thing...
Which approach would your clients choose, if you made them aware of the options?
The pragmatic thing, too...
Which is more likely to reinforce your image as a principled, Best Interest financial professional?
Gain confidence of advisors
Which is more likely to engender the confidence and loyalty of HNW/UHNW wealth advisors and firms you want to work with?
Lower time commitment
Much faster go/no-go with actionable bids in 15 days (not months), less time on process to build and present case, and fewer iterations
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Comparable comp
Receive compensation comparable to brokers' while doing the right thing for your client - lower % of proceeds, but higher winning bids
Receive your fee faster
You typically receive your compensation in 60 - 75 days, not 130+
MESSAGE FOR LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCERS WHO USE BROKERS
Which solution better positions you in an evolving market?
Simply, if a client were to ask you about the approaches, which would be easier to describe and defend? How would you intellectually defend the price discovery and how would you defend the commissions?
We understand that you must/want to be compensated for your role in this high-value transaction and we will work with you to ensure you receive compensation comparable to what you receive from a traditional broker, even at lower %’s, borne of our higher winning bids.
Insights and analysis on the market and options for your clients with surplus and unwanted life insurance.
Our quarterly e-mail newsletter delivers insights on the forces shaping market, ideas on how to identify opportunities and engage your clients, and examples of recent transactions that we have undertaken with the most sophisticated and conscientious wealth advisors, life insurance professionals, and fiduciary and Best Interest advisors of all stripes.
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