With its rapid growth over the last few years, it is sometimes difficult to remember that the life settlement business is still relatively new.
Despite its youth, however, the secondary market for life insurance has faced its share of challenges. Many of these have come in the regulatory arena recently as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has discussed and worked on amendments to its Viatical Settlements Model Act. These discussions have often pitted the life settlement industry in a tug of war against regulators and life insurers. And it is far from over.
The roundtable that is the main feature of this supplement brought together 10 executives from the life settlement business. Needless to say, many of the current regulatory challenges the business is facing were leading topics of discussion. But these executives are also taking a long-term view of their business and focusing on ways of educating their various markets. You'll find this too in their discussion.
As with other leading developments in the life insurance business, National Underwriter is your source for the most current information. So I'd like to let you know that just last month we launched a monthly e-newsletter called Settlement Watch. It's free and you can subscribe to it by going to .