Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What is a Life Settlement?


If you are experiencing financial problems, your viatical insurance premium can be an easy expense to eliminate. If you have life insurance and need to get rid of the policy, ask your insurance company about a life settlement. The life settlement simply involves the policyholder selling his or her life insurance policy to a settlement company, which may or may not be the issuing insurance provider. Usually, you will earn more by selling your policy to a third-party settlement provider than to the insurance company that issued it initially. This fairly recent type of transaction can lift the monetary burden of making monthly payments for life insurance.

Life settlements are most commonly the result of the policyholder's financial difficulties, but can stem from a variety of other situations. If, for example, a policy has only one beneficiary who passes away prior to the policyholder, there is no reason for the life insurance to remain active. The policyholder may also have gotten a new job that provides better life insurance or may need the money for current medical bills. Additionally, the policyholder may have received a better offer for life insurance through an employer or may need funds for present medical care.

There is also the chance that the policyholder's estate lawyer recommended getting rid of the policy for one reason or another. It may have been decided that the money should be invested elsewhere or used to purchase survivorship insurance. Some families also prefer charitable donations or trusts in order to allocate a family member's assets after his or her death.

Bankruptcy of a self-owned business is yet another reason that a life insurance policy may be rendered useless to an individual. If the policy was purchased under the company name, it no longer serves a purpose. The life insurance money can be utilized revamping your financial life after the bankruptcy has been finalized. Life settlements can be the product of any number of circumstances in a person's private life.

Typically, life insurance settlements transaction allows an individual to continue to provide a certain level of living for his or her family when unforeseen events occur. People who opt for a life settlement are often hoping to shield their families from the fallout of a financial disaster. Keeping their households as stable as possible is generally important to these people.

Life settlements are not the best option in every set of circumstances. This option can, though, be a vital tool for some families to survive a difficult financial struggle. You should not make the decision to engage in a life settlement transaction alone. You should consult with your family lawyer or a trusted financial adviser before you make a final choice.


The Benefit of Life Settlement


When it comes to the life settlement industry, the viatical settlement industry brought it to fruition. Those with terminal illnesses are the original proprietors of life settlement in that they only had a few years to live at the time in question. Those who sold their insurance policies were looking for a way to get an immediate return in monetary value from someone who had purchased the policy from them. When medical breakthroughs in the fight against the AIDS virus took place, many seniors were left high and dry having to pay extremely expensive insurance premiums on new policies. Many terrible companies also cheated many senior citizens out of large sums of money by making fraudulent promises of further investment on their settlement.

The process of life settlement involves an existing policy being sold to a buyer for a named price, then the buyer takes ownership over that policy for the rest of their life. In order to obtain the policy, the purchaser must pay for all of the premiums that the original owner had previously paid. When a senior’s health takes a turn for the worse, or they are extremely old, many take the route of a life settlement. With a large sum of money available almost immediately, many seniors decide to pay off medical bills, or just handle other financial responsibilities before they die.

Life settlement is a big decision, so it is recommended that you speak with an experienced expert within the market. When it comes to life settlement, attorneys, financial planners and trust officers are just a few of the many people that you can talk to. When it comes to life settlement, these people know all of the rules and regulations associated with it and can help you make the right decisions.

When you decide that life settlements is right for you, you will be looking for a great return on your policy. Without help, this task can be very difficult if not impossible. Brokers are involved quite often and are looking for the right seller who can offer a standard market value. Brokers provide the benefit of accumulating many different bids from sellers. Getting the most value for you policy means putting up one bid against the others. In order to get a great bid, most of the time you will have to disclose your medical history.

In summary, life settlement is a great option if you are looking for a large sum of money late in life. Life settlement can be necessary for many reasons like bankruptcy, medical problems, employment issues, and even just high premiums. Life settlement can help you out quite a bit, but it is always smart to meet with someone who is experienced in the rules and regulations associated with the complexities involved.

Check life insurance settlement companies as many as you can before making a huge decision.

What Seniors Should Know About Life Settlements

To get quick money, an option seniors have is selling an insurance policy. Turning over a life insurance policy for an established cash value is called a life settlement. By using this option, policyholders are able to get fair market value for their policy. In life settlements, you are selling your policy to someone for something slightly lower than what it is actually valued at. Because life insurance settlements policies are actual property like your car and home, you can do this. These settlements grant people access to the money their policy would normally pay out after their death. Not every policy is suitable for a life settlement, though; double check that the value makes it worth it and you no longer need the coverage.There is a specific manner in which life settlements work. After establishing the terms of purchase, the life settlement company pays you for your policy. Upon your death, the company receives your entire policy benefits.The beauty of a life settlement is that you can receive a great deal of money in place of your policy before you pass away. Also, it relieves the policy owner of premium costs and gives them a great deal of flexible money. Also, for people who no longer need the money related to a life insurance policy, life settlements allow them to donate that money to charity. This is possible, but you will want to consult an accountant about possible tax concerns. If you donate your policy to a charity, they acquire the life settlement on their own.More and more seniors who have policies they no longer need are finding that life settlements are a great option for them. More and more studies are proving that billions of dollars are being moved in the market because of this option that seniors did not have only years ago.The ideal person to seek out a life settlement has retired or is able to, is debt free, and finds themselves without the need for life insurance. The sum you will receive for your policy is dependent on a few things. The company you sell to will look at what your policy is worth, how long you have held the policy, and your age and health. It is easier to reach a life settlement when you are over 65 and are expected to live between two and ten more years. Also, it is common for a life settlement company to require that the policy be worth at minimum half a million dollars.If you are a senior with excess life insurance coverage, you may think about a life settlement. Because there is risk involved in any financial move, consider your options carefully and discuss it with a financial advisor.

Understanding Life Settlements


The current state of the economy has caused many families to fall on hard times, which means they are looking to lower their monthly bills by any means necessary. To improve their household's economic situation, some people are seriously considering  to check out life settlement companies. A life settlement involves a life insurance policy holder selling his or her insurance policy to a third-party buyer. It is extremely unlikely that the insurance policy who issued the life insurance policy would pay nearly as much for it as the policyholder will make from a life settlement transaction.

The third-party buyer in a life settlement transaction pays the monthly premium for the policy and becomes its beneficiary. Since the buyer becomes a policy's sole beneficiary after a life settlement transaction, this third-party will receive the full insurance pay-out when the original policyholder dies. Life settlements are advantageous for the original policyholder at the time of the transaction and for the third-party buyer at a later date, since they will ultimately profit from the settlement.

The secondary life insurance settlements industry enables life settlement transactions to be completed. Though it did not originate until the 1990s, this industry has experienced a rapid rate of growth. Especially because of the unstable economy in the last few years, life settlements are becoming an appealing option for a growing number of people. Since it continues to gain popularity, it is logical that the secondary life insurance industry will keep experiencing growth.

There are numerous circumstance that could spark an individual to begin looking at life settlement options instead of keeping his or her life insurance policy. One common reason is that the policy's original beneficiary passed away before the policyholder. If the beneficiary predeceases the policyholder, the life insurance policy is basically worthless, so there is no point in an individual continuing to pay for it. Another common reason that people choose life settlements is to pay for immediate, unexpected expenses. Often, these expenses are medical.

If the secondary life insurance industry wasn't available, a policyholder who could no longer pay his or her premium would have no choice but to simply let his or her life insurance policy lapse. When a policy lapses, the insurance company is no longer required to issue a pay-out if they policyholder passes away. Furthermore, the insurance company will keep any monthly payments a policyholder has made up until the date that the policy lapsed.

Instantly selling your life insurance policy is not a cure-all solution for financial difficulties. Though life settlements are a great option in certain situations, you should speak to someone knowledgeable before you sell your policy. You should begin by scheduling an appointment with your lawyer or financial adviser.

Also check out viatical settlement

Is a Life Settlement a Good Option for You?


Since life settlements are constantly increasing in popularity, it is becoming essential for insurance agents, financial and estate planners, lawyers, and others involved in finance to understand exactly how these transactions work. Although there is no actual limit on how old one must be to use a life settlement option, they are sometimes called senior settlements. This is because the elderly are the most prevalent demographic to use life settlements.

A life settlement transaction involves the policyholder willingly selling his or her life insurance policy to a third-party purchaser. This prevents the policy from simply lapsing, which would cause all of the premiums that had been paid to that point to become the property of the issuing insurance company. People choose life settlements for a number of reasons. A life insurance policyholder could, for example, have encountered emergency medical bills that have to be paid. Life settlements are also appealing to policyholders who have outlived their policy's only beneficiary. There is simply no viable reason to continue paying premiums on a life insurance policy that no longer has a beneficiary.

With increasing frequency, financial planners and insurance agents are starting to use their knowledge of life settlements as a selling-point. At this point, the most successful methods of advertising life settlement services are individual meetings with current customers and informational seminars for potential clients offered by the insurance agency or financial planning firm. Although it isn't as effective, some businesses have also chosen to mail information packets about life settlements to senior citizens who are current clients.

A number of financial advisers and insurance agents have chosen to team-up with life settlement brokers to gain cutting-edge knowledge about the industry. These brokers have studied the life settlement process and have a complete understanding of how the industry functions. An important part of a broker's job is to aid insurance agents and financial planners in crafting educational information and advertising materials that make life settlements attractive to their clients.

Furthermore, life settlement brokers usually sit-in on any meetings with people who are potentially interested in a life settlement. Brokers can generally analyze a client's situation almost instantly to determine if he or she is a good candidate for a life settlement.

Life settlements have only existed for the past few years. This means that they are still a new notion to many people within the finance and insurance industries. Policyholders must research life settlements as much as possible prior to making an appointment with their insurance agent or financial planner. This way, you will be able to complete the life settlement process by working together. As life settlements continue to increase in popularity, you will probably have additional education options.

Check out life insurance settlement companies to get better options and idea of what's the best thing to do.