Maximizing the value of your older clients' surplus life insurance
Trusted since 2016 by top wealth management firms, including 6 of the top 10 and more than a dozen of the top 50 RIAs (Barron's 2025). We help advisors realize the full value of the life insurance that their older clients no longer want or need as an alternative to lapse or surrender.
Maximizing the value of your clients' surplus life insurance
We have been a trusted partner of 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 of older HNW/UHNW policy owners.
Disrupting a Broken Channel
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 execution, end-to-end transparency, complete audit trail, bidding on ShareFile platform with fully-redacted client files, and the fastest process in the market, actionable bids in <15 days and funding in 60 days, and compensation 1/4 the incumbent channel, all give you confidence that the asset's true value has been realized.
Effective
The highest winning bids and lowest fees (7.5% vs. 33% of brokers) 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.
TRUSTED BY THE BEST WEALTH MANAGEMENT FIRMS AND ADVISORS IN THE COUNTRY
Confidence is our most important deliverable
Leading wealth management firms increasingly evaluate clients' life insurance as part of financial and estate planning, and often find policies whose original purpose is no longer relevant or worth the cost. That forces a decision: lapse, surrender, or settle.
When the answer is "settle," or even "explore," conscientious advisors at the country's most highly regarded firms trust us to deliver the standard of process and results their own clients expect of them.
We'd love to earn the same trust from you.
01
What we do
Institutional-quality price discovery for the sale of in-force life insurance of HNW/UHNW clients at top wealth management firms.
02
How we are different
A more effective process: real competition among multiple buyers, without the opacity, inefficiency, and high cost of the incumbent channel.
03
Who we work with
Top RIAs, trust companies, private banks, BGAs/IMOs, and principled life insurance producers seeking an alternative to the incumbent channel.
Why we do what we do
We are capital markets professionals who spent seven years on the buy side of the institutional market for in-force life insurance. In 2016, we set out to fix the origination side of the market.
We started this business because of what we saw in seven years as buyers from the incumbent channel: opaque, ineffective price discovery, commissions we couldn't defend, and claims of fiduciary representation we didn't believe. We knew top wealth advisors would never engage the market in a meaningful way without real change.
We believed that we could, and should, do it better. So, we did.
High ownership rates, high lapse rates. Real opportunity.
50%
of HNW/UHNW clients 70+ own a universal life policy
$60B
lapsed or surrendered each year
75%
likley have value to institutional buyers
10x/28%
the average settlement: 10x cash surrender value, 28% of face value
Roughly one in three of your clients who reach 70 hold a policy with value to institutional buyers.
You already regularly assess and adjust other elements of your clients' financial plan and run price discovery on other assets in a client's portfolio: real estate, concentrated stock, private equity stakes. Their life insurance warrants the same discipline and attention.
When exploring a sale makes sense, top advisors trust us to run the engagement, generating the highest bids and net proceeds, often hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars more than a surrender would return.
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #1
$2,000,000 GUL
$582,000 winning bid | $538,350 net proceeds
Our Client
$500 billion AUM wealth management arm of global asset manager
Insured
93 year old healthy female
Description
Facing a premium increase after 15 years and $400,000 paid, the insured's two adult children no longer wanted to fund the policy. It had no cash value, so a surrender would have returned nothing. Bids ranged from $240,000 to $582,000.
Our Client
$30 billion RIA
Insured
51 year old female, cancer diagnosis
Description
Soon after selling her business to a private equity firm, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Her advisor came to us holding a $150,000 offer 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
A widowed retired farmer no longer wanted to fund the second-to-die policy and planned to simply take its $20,000 cash value, until his advisor told him about other advisors' engagements with us.
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
A retired public-company CEO and his wife wanted to "trim the sails" on a large policy portfolio within a complex estate plan. They sold about 20% and used the proceeds to fund the policies they kept.
SAMPLE ENGAGEMENT #4
$9,800,000 GUL
$4,300,000 winning bid | $3,977,500 net proceeds
We are engaged by top advisors across the wealth advisory spectrum
6 of the top 10/12 of top 50 RIAs (Barron's 2025) | 10+ BGAs/IMOs and top life insurance advisors | Several Trust Banks and Private Banks | 100% repeat clients
We know how hard you work to earn your clients' trust. We play only a small part in that, but we take our responsibility to you, your clients, and their families very seriously.
Most advisors have referred us to colleagues, and many firms that once avoided the transaction altogether now engage us regularly.
"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
$350B RIA
For seven years, we bought from the incumbent channel. We knew what had to be fixed.
Brokers describe their "negotiations" as what drives the price. In practice they manufacture complexity, and with it the appearance of value that would not have surfaced without them, to justify commissions far beyond what you would accept in any other financial transaction. Understanding what they do and don't do explains why we do what we do, and why our approach is so much more closely aligned with you and your clients.
Inefficient: typically 90 days to actionable bids
Weak price discovery: the winner only has to beat the runner-up, so bargain hunting is rewarded
Opaque, with selective disclosure: minimal visibility into the process, no audit trail
Expensive: commissions of up to a third of the bid, often confusingly described
Podcast Appearance: Smarter Planner Podcast
We speak your language
Hear our founder, Scott Sanders, explain our approach to financial planners on the Smarter Planner Podcast with Belle Osvath, CFP.
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.
BY DESIGN, DISCIPLINE, AND RIGOR
Higher winning bids
Brokers cite multi-round bidding, and winning bids above opening bids, as proof of value created. There is nothing to negotiate and no buyer looks to a broker to convince them of the value of a policy. Each buyer's value for a policy is private, and in an open process, the winner only has to top the runner-up.
Our auction is built around how institutional capital actually values policies. Bidding low risks losing to a buyer whose value is higher, so bids are pushed toward each buyer's ceiling, not an opening offer.
"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 because of using 1908’s service."
Senior Insurance Advisor (CFP)
$10B RIA
1.3x
average winning bid vs incumbent channel
7.5%
fee (vs. brokers up to 33%), minimum of $12,500
1.8x
net proceeds to your client vs. the incumbent channel
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
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
Execution to your high standards
10+ capital sources reached | Bids received in 80% of auctions | 15 days to actionable bids | 60 days to funding
We engage only vetted, reliable capital, through regulated intermediaries (Providers), never fringe capital or a counterparty we wouldn't be comfortable putting across the table from you and your client - there are buyers that we explicitly do not engage in our process. Client files are redacted, and bids run in a secure, encrypted ShareFile bid room with a complete audit trail.
"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
YOUR ADVOCACY IS CRITICAL
Without you, your clients face only bad options
Is any client better off if you don't raise the question of selling a policy they no longer want? Is there a client who wouldn't want to at least know?
You know your clients' planning objectives and the life events that change a policy's utility, whether it was bought for protection, estate planning, or business planning. That puts you in the best position to identify the significant value in an asset they no longer need.
High cost of inaction: 90% will unwittingly forgo the opportunity altogether | 5% will engage a single buyer, not competing | 5% will engage an expensive broker
"I cannot imagine any of my clients not wanting me to at least talk with them about the options for a policy that doesn't make sense for them to maintain any longer. And that we can assess the potential value and transact with you and the 1908 team makes it so easy and efficient."
Private Wealth Advisor (CFP)
$390B RIA
<70/70+
if less healthy/if standard health
Any UL
policy type (and convertible term)
>$500K
policy size
GIVE YOUR CLIENTS THE COMFORT THAT THEY WON'T MISS OUT
Clients rarely ask. That doesn't mean the opportunity is rare or difficult to identify.
Advisors often judge how common this opportunity is by how often clients ask about it. But consumer awareness is likely under 10%, so client questions understate the need.
A little proactive engagement, knowing what clients own and why, delivers a high-value service win and substantial proceeds, and can grow your AUM. With us, you also get a professional process and maximum value, in half the time and for about a quarter of the 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. We'll help many families together."
UHNW Insurance Advisor (ChFC, CLU)
$350B RIA
Disrupting a Broken Channel
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 execution, end-to-end transparency, complete audit trail, bidding on ShareFile platform with fully-redacted client files, and the fastest process in the market, actionable bids in <15 days and funding in 60 days, and compensation 1/4 the incumbent channel, all give you confidence that the asset's true value has been realized.
Effective
The highest winning bids and lowest fees (7.5% vs. 33% of brokers) 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.
Which solution better positions you in an evolving market? HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE PERCEIVED?
A fit for principled, pragmatic life insurance agents
We know that most life insurance agents are familiar with life settlements and that many actually like the broker channel - the commissions are appealing, even if otherwise difficult to defend.
If, however, you are committed to advancing the interests of your clients and you'd like to do life settlements for them in a way that ensures that they receive the maximum value for an asset that you sold them but that they no longer want or need, while still being equitably compensated, then we'd love to work with you.
01
Doing the right thing
Which approach would your client choose if you showed them the options? Which would you choose for a family member?
02
Align with advisor values
What would be the reaction of a fee only or fiduciary advisor to learning too late that you put a shared client into a brokered settlement vs. our approach?
03
Comparable comp
Our fee is lower, but our winning bids are higher, so your compensation over multiple engagements is comparable to what you earn with a broker.
Insights and analysis on the market and options for your clients with surplus and unwanted life insurance.
Insights and analysis on the market and options for your clients with surplus and unwanted life insurance.
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