At The Table

I had a really interesting experience on Oct. 4 in Atlanta.

I was co-moderator of a roundtable that brought together top executives from 11 life settlement companies. The other co-moderator was Ramiro Rencurrell, who is president of the Life Insurance Settlement Association.

This event was organized by National Underwriter Life & Health and content from the roundtable will be featured in a special supplement we are publishing with the Oct. 30 issue. So I am not going to get into specifics about who said what at the discussion. You’ll just have to wait until that supplement comes out.

But I would like to share some of my impressions from the roundtable since they probably won’t find a place in that supplement.

First off I should say that it was a very impressive group that came together at the Buckhead Club. The participants were (in no particular order): Bryan Freeman of Habersham Funding; Scott Page, The Lifeline Program; Ted Kilkuskie, Coventry; Craig Seitel, Abacus Settlements; Steve Washington, Life Equity; Larry Simon, Life Settlement Solutions; Rob Haynie, Life Insurance Settlements; Jim Cavoli, Life Settlements Insights; Dan Bockhorn, Trinity Financial Services; Brent Bush, Magna; and, last but not least, Nate Evans, MapleLife Financial.

From the whole tone and tenor of the conversation, it was obvious that these men and their companies were all very committed to their business.

All of them also have an intense belief in the ultimate value to consumers of life settlements and a sense that this is just the beginning for what is still quite a young business. They’re also in it for the long haul.

A while back I wrote this about the life settlement business:

“It is no exaggeration to say that the emergence of life settlements is a transformational event in the life insurance business. Although still in its relative infancy, the secondary market for life insurance policies has the capacity to create powerful changes in how the product is bought and sold, underwritten and marketed.”