Michelangelo's David
A symbol of "the dignity of man," representing the Renaissance ideal of human excellence, freedom, and the power to shape one's own life, moving away from more pessimistic medieval views.
An enlightened approach to life settlements for top financial advisors.
We enable conscientious HNW/UHNW wealth advisors, principled life insurance professionals, and Trust companies to extract maximum value from older clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance, delivering transparent and effective price discovery, expedient execution, charging a rational fee.
INTRODUCTION
Making life settlements a rational option for you
Who We Are
Experienced capital markets professionals with expertise in the institutional market for in-force life insurance, for seven years with a private equity buyer and since 2016 enabling advisors at top RIAs, principled life insurance advisors, various fiduciaries, and to confidently engage the market.
What We Do
Conduct a controlled, disciplined, and intellectually rigorous price discovery process with 20+ high-quality institutional buyers to ensure maximum value for your older clients' unwanted and surplus life insurance, consummating the transaction in 60 days and being paid a 7.5% fee.
Alone in our Approach
We deliver substantively better outcomes – both psychic and financial, 1.8x the net proceeds of brokers – in a more transparent, expeditious, and confidence-engendering process than any other approach available to policy owners or their trusted advisors.
Enabling differentiating service wins and organic AUM growth for the best wealth advisors
For too long, wealth advisors and principled life insurance professionals have been faced with a Faustian bargain of ignoring altogether the benefit of the sale of a client's unwanted life insurance policy or engaging a fundamentally broken and egregiously expensive distribution channel that insults their intelligence and business ethics.
So, with different values, a fundamentally different philosophy that underlies everything we do, and unmatched breadth and depth of experience, we set out to deliver a materially differentiated and better service, ensuring that you can offer a life settlement solution worthy of your reputation and in which you can have the confidence that your clients will receive the maximum value for their asset.
2016
Year Founded
1.3x/1.8x
Multiple of broker winning bids/net $
10+
Top 50 RIAs served
7.5%
Fee (Gross Bid - CSV)
we speak your language and understand the obligation to your clients
The best at what we do
We started this business because we were frustrated by what we saw as buyers with a large private equity buyer of in-force life insurance for seven years, offended by the incumbent channel's business practices, opaque and ineffective price discovery, and egregious commissions, knowing that top wealth advisors would never not engage the market in a meaningful way without real change, and believed that we could – and should – do it better.
Changing an opaque market and unnecessarily confusing transaction to work for conscientious wealth management professionals is hard, but fun, and we work only with people we like and respect personally and professionally, who share our values, and who we’d want to spend time with, if we weren’t working together.
Smarter Planner Podcast
Hear in this episode of the "Smarter Planner Podcast" Belle Osvath, CFP, interview 1908's founder, Scott Sanders, about his company's innovative approach to helping financial planners work with their clients to sell life insurance policies that they and their advisors determine they no longer want or need.
WHETHER AND WITH WHOM TO MONETIZE CLIENTS' UNWANTED LIFE INSURANCE
Strategic Imperative
In a rapidly evolving, increasingly competitive wealth management landscape in which clients are placing a higher premium on financial planning expertise and execution, assuming that you can partner with a firm that shares your values and professionalism, is there any circumstance in which you would not want to enable a client to extract maximum value from a life insurance policy that is no longer of sufficient utility for them to maintain?
If your answer is "no," we're here to help.
66%
of HNW desire greater personalization in their wealth management relationship (PWC)
56%
of advisors’ top growth priority is to expand service offering (Natixis)
80%
of HNW practices plan to expand service offerings over the next five years (Cerulli)
47%
of HNW desire a more holistic service offering from primary wealth manager (McKinsey)
$5,300,000 winning bid
$4,770,000 net proceeds
$350 billion RIA
85 year old healthy male
$12,000,000 GUL
Rebalancing assets in Charitable Trust
$130,000 winning bid
$117,500 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
73 year old male
$1,500,000 GUL
Simply no longer wanted the policy
$4,300,000 winning bid
$3,977,500 net proceeds
$350 billion RIA
91 year old male/91 year old female
$9,800,000 GUL
Adjustment of life insurance portfolio
$802,500 winning bid
$742,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
79 year old male/78 year old female
$5,200,000 GUL
Illiquid trust
$475,000 winning bid
$439,375 net proceeds
General Agent (RIA referral)
67 year old male w/ cancer diagnosis
$1,500,000 GUL (converted term)
Expired buy/sell agreement
$437,400 winning bid
$404,595 net proceeds
Large wirehouse
91 year old healthy female
$754,000 UL
Change in beneficiaries
$200,000 winning bid
$185,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
85 year old healthy male
$2,000,000 UL
Illiquid Trust
$900,000 winning bid
$832,500 net proceeds
$28 billion RIA
51 year old female w/ cancer diagnosis
$5,000,000 term
Key Man policy after sale of business
$2,948,000 winning bid
$2,726,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
85 year old healthy female
$5,300,000 GUL
Illiquid charitable trust
$165,000 winning bid
$153,000 net proceeds
$70 billion RIA
73 year old healthy male
$3,00,000 GUL
Divorce/change in beneficiaries
WOULD ANY CLIENT NOT WANT TO AT LEAST KNOW ABOUT THESE POSSIBLE RESULTS?
A high-value element of a client's financial plan
A common misconception among many advisors is that the opportunity to monetize a client's unwanted or surplus life insurance policy is limited to when they can no longer afford it - that is only a small portion of the transactions that we actually undertake, like those scrolling here.
A no longer relevant key man or buy/sell policy. A change in beneficiaries. Diminished willingness to fund a policy or a trust. An illiquid trust as the insured lives longer than anticipated. An unpalatable increase in premiums. A simple preference for the liquidity that a sale might generate. And as many other reasons as clients who own a policy.
Your knowledge of clients' financial planning objectives and protection needs as well as their means/liquidity and life events that affect the utility of a life insurance uniquely positions you to identify those changes that give rise to the lapses and the corresponding opportunities to instead monetize a policy, like this handful of engagements.
$5,300,000 winning bid
$4,770,000 net proceeds
$350 billion RIA
85 year old healthy male
$12,000,000 GUL
Rebalancing assets in Charitable Trust
$130,000 winning bid
$117,500 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
73 year old male
$1,500,000 GUL
Simply no longer wanted the policy
$4,300,000 winning bid
$3,977,500 net proceeds
$350 billion RIA
91 year old male/91 year old female
$9,800,000 GUL
Adjustment of life insurance portfolio
$802,500 winning bid
$742,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
79 year old male/78 year old female
$5,200,000 GUL
Illiquid trust
$475,000 winning bid
$439,375 net proceeds
General Agent (RIA referral)
67 year old male w/ cancer diagnosis
$1,500,000 GUL (converted term)
Expired buy/sell agreement
$437,400 winning bid
$404,595 net proceeds
Large wirehouse
91 year old healthy female
$754,000 UL
Change in beneficiaries
$200,000 winning bid
$185,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
85 year old healthy male
$2,000,000 UL
Illiquid Trust
$900,000 winning bid
$832,500 net proceeds
$28 billion RIA
51 year old female w/ cancer diagnosis
$5,000,000 term
Key Man policy after sale of business
$2,948,000 winning bid
$2,726,000 net proceeds
$10 billion RIA
85 year old healthy female
$5,300,000 GUL
Illiquid charitable trust
$165,000 winning bid
$153,000 net proceeds
$70 billion RIA
73 year old healthy male
$3,00,000 GUL
Divorce/change in beneficiaries
WOULD ANY CLIENT NOT WANT TO AT LEAST KNOW ABOUT THESE POSSIBLE RESULTS?
A high-value element of a client's financial plan
A common misconception among many advisors is that the opportunity to monetize a client's unwanted or surplus life insurance policy is limited to when they can no longer afford it - that is only a small portion of the transactions that we actually undertake, like those scrolling here.
A no longer relevant key man or buy/sell policy. A change in beneficiaries. Diminished willingness to fund a policy or a trust. An illiquid trust as the insured lives longer than anticipated. An unpalatable increase in premiums. A simple preference for the liquidity that a sale might generate. And as many other reasons as clients who own a policy.
With any foresight and awareness whatsoever, you are uniquely positioned to ensure that your client can responsibly undertake, with you, a sale of their unwanted or surplus life insurance at a significant premium to what they would receive by surrendering it.
50%
of HNW/UHNW HH's over 72 own at least one relevant life insurance policy, any UL or convertible term, for a variety of protection, business planning, or estate planning reasons
85%
of those policies - 4%/year - are lapsed or surrendered as the utility declines with changes in need or the policy becomes prohibitively expensive and/or liquidity has a greater premium
75%
likely 40,000/$50B, would sell for a substantial premium to policy surrender value and 5% - 50% of face value to a universe of regulated, institutional buyers of in-force life insurance
90%
unwittingly miss out altogether, lapsing or surrendering a policy that might sell for hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in a transaction with high-quality counterparties
10%
receive far less for their asset than they should by engaging a broker to which they pay egregious fees or a single buyer that is not compelled by competition to maximize their offer
WHY IT MATTERS - IT IS A MORE SUBSTANTIVE OPPORTUNITY THAN YOU LIKELY KNOW
An underutilized opportunity to deliver a differentiated service to your clients
40% of HNW/UHNW who live past 72 will lapse a UL/VUL or convertible term life insurance policy before it pays a death benefit, two thirds of which would likely sell to a universe of high-quality institutional buyers at a significant premium to surrender value (average 8x - 10x surrender value and 28% of policy face value).
But, due to low awareness and a discomfort with the incumbent distribution channel, less than 10% of the $45 - $50 billion that would sell to high-quality institutional buyers of in-force life insurance every year are actually settled, costing HNW/UHNW policy owners $US billions every year.
We are here to make sure that your clients aren't among either the 90% who miss the opportunity all together or the 10% who recieve far less for it than they should.
"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 $340B 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."
Managing Director, Head of Insurance Solutions
$125 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
"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 as a result of using 1908’s service."
Senior Insurance Advisor (CFP)
$10 billion RIA
"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 $140B 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)
$25 billion RIA
Our Clients
We count among our clients the most highly-regarded HNW/UHNW RIAs in the country. Three of the top five, six of the top 10, and more than a dozen of the top 50 RIAs, with more than 1.5$T AUM. All firms that assiduously avoided life settlements until they learned of our approach and the benefits for their clients.
We also serve a rapidly growing universe of principled, Best Interest-oriented life insurance professionals at the most sophisticated insurance advisory firms in the country, especially among those with CFP and ChFC designations, as well as Trust Companies, trustees, and wirehouse advisors.
10+
Top 50 RIAs
10+
Top Life Insurance Firms
Several
Other fiduciaries and wirehouse advisors
A message for principled life insurance professionals
DO THE RIGHT THING FOR CLIENTS AND MAKE COMPARABLE COMPENSATION
Which approach do you believe will give clients and wealth advisory partners alike the confidence that you have a client's best interests at heart? Which would you use for your own policy? A family member's, if you wanted to ensure that they received the maximum possible proceeds?
We will work with you to set an appropriate fee for your efforts in the case to ensure that you are properly compensated - we typically split a 10% - 15% fee with our life insurance partners. Given our higher winning bids, even at a lower % than the brokers pay, you will likely receive comparable or even more compensation than with broker transactions.
And you get to do the right thing for your client.
"I just cringed every time I had to talk to a client or their advisor about the broker's commissions. I hated it. And I had no hope of describing with any confidence the process and timelines."
UHNW life insurance producer who recently started using 1908 after years of using brokers for his clients' life settlements
Rationalizing a Loosely-Organized, but highly-regulated Market
Disciplined market engagement and process execution to your standards
We access only the highest quality, most reliable capital through the most reputable regulated intermediaries (Providers, licensed to engage sellers on behalf of their capital partners), never fringe capital or Providers with which we don't have extensive transaction experience, to ensure the lowest transaction risk and maximum expediency in the market.
Our approach and process ensure that your clients benefit from the inefficiencies of a market in which different buyers often ascribe wildly divergent values to the same policy being auctioned. And we do it in weeks, not months, with a single round, blind, best and final auction, executed in a secure ShareFile bid room, not via e-mail and phone calls.
20+
buyers reached
10x/28%
avg. of surrender value/face value
7.5%
fee (winning bid - surrender value)
Higher Winning Bids. Reliably.
Our approach, borne of experience as buyers for seven years and an understanding of how asset-constrained markets price oppotunities, is uniquely effective at compelling participants to bid to their true private value, not bidding anchored to others' known bids, yielding substantially higher winning bids.
The difference is often not just a fraction higher, but a multiple of what a broker could produce, putting hundreds of thousands and even millions more in your clients' account and your AUM.
higher winning bids, faster execution, lower fees, much higher proceeds
Real results for real families
We are not advocates for life settlements as much as we are for conscientious wealth management, life insurance, and Trust professionals to have a responsible, professionally-executed means to maximize the value of a life insurance policy, like the examples scrolling here, that no longer serves a client's protection or estate planning need for which it was purchased or for which there are preferred means to achieve an estate planning objective, as the insured ages and circumstances change.
1.3x
average multiple of broker winning bid
1.8x
average multiple of broker net proceeds
90%
auctions successful
60
total days to funding (vs. 130 brokers)
WITH ANY FORETHOUGHT AT ALL, ENGAGING AT THE RIGHT TIME IS EASY
Your clients are on their own without you
Without your engagement, your clients are on their own and face only bad or, at best, sub-optimal, outcomes when contemplating what to do with unwanted and surplus life insurance. Your knowledge of clients' financial planning objectives and protection needs as well as their means/liquidity and life events that affect the utility of a life insurance uniquely positions you to identify those changes that give rise to the lapses and the corresponding opportunities to instead monetize a policy to ensure, at minimum, that they do not unwittingly miss out on the opportunity because you did not talk about it with them.
<72/72+
insured age if not healthy/healthy
UL
any UL chassis or convertible term policy
Any
ownership structure
>$500K
policy size
Insights and analysis on the market and options for your clients with surplus and unwanted life insurance.
Our quarterly e-mail newsletter delivers insights on the forces shaping market, ideas on how to identify opportunities and engage your clients, and examples of recent transactions that we have undertaken with the most sophisticated and conscientious wealth advisors, life insurance professionals, and fiduciary and Best Interest advisors of all stripes.
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