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January 16, 2006 at 10:34 AM
The life settlements market continues to grow fast, a new study concludes.
The amount of life settlements business grew to $5.5 billion in life insurance policy face amounts in 2005, up from $3.3 billion in 2004, says Conning Research and Consulting Inc., Hartford.
Thanks to available capital and continued aggressive marketing, the market has grown from $2 billion in 2002, according to an earlier Conning estimate.
Life settlements are offered to seniors who hold cash-value life insurance policies they think they no longer want or need. The idea is to give seniors an alternative to surrendering their policies by offering them a settlement payment in return for signing the death benefit over to the life-settlement company.
George McKeon, an analyst at Conning, says a big reason for the recent growth is an increasing amount of cash life settlement firms have available for buying up life insurance policies.
