1.3x/1.8x
1.3x average higher winning bids · 1.8x higher net t
28%/10x
28% average of face value and 10x average of surrender value
15 days
to actionable bids
7.5%
fee (min. $12,500)
Engaged by RIAs, trust companies, private banks, and conscientious life insurance advisors since 2016
TRUSTED BY 6 OF THE TOP 10 RIAs (BARRON'S 2025)
Maximum value for the life insurance your clients no longer need.
Real competition among several institutional buyers of in-force life insurance, full transparency and audit trail, and a simple 7.5% fee, ensuring confidence for you and maximum value to your client.
MAKING IT A RATIONAL PART OF THE PLAN
Options for clients' life insurance as their needs change.
As clients increasingly value comprehensive planning over investment management alone, leading wealth management firms are bringing the same discipline to clients’ life insurance that they apply to every other asset. They often find that as clients age, and their needs, liquidity preferences and estate plans evolve, a policy no longer justifies its cost.
That forces a decision: lapse, surrender, or sell the policy to an institutional buyer for more than its surrender value. More than half of HNW and UHNW clients over 70 own a policy, whether individually, in a trust or through a business, and nearly 90% of policies end in a lapse or surrender. The question comes up far more often than most advisors expect.
When a sale deserves consideration, advisors at the country’s most highly regarded firms trust us to run it alongside them.
01
What we do
Institutional-quality price discovery for the sale of in-force life insurance owned by HNW and UHNW clients.
02
Differentiated approach
Real price discovery with a universe of vetted institutional buyers, full transparency, and a simple fee, so you can confidently stand behind the result.
03
Who we work with
Top RIAs, trust companies, private banks, BGAs/IMOs and principled life insurance advisors.
OUR TEAM
Why we started 1908
We spent seven years as buyers of in-force life insurance for a large private equity firm and saw how the incumbent channel worked: opaque, ineffective price discovery, selective disclosure to clients, and commissions that would be hard to defend in any other financial transaction. We knew top wealth advisors would never engage this market in a meaningful way until that changed, and we believed we could do it better.
In 2016, we set out to do just that. Changing an established market is hard, but rewarding and fun, and we get to work only with people we like and respect, personally and professionally, who share our values, and with whom we'd want to spend time, even if we weren't working together.
Scott Sanders
Founder
Seven years at a private equity buyer, transacting with firms like Apollo, Blackstone and DE Shaw, before founding 1908.
Mark Lapolla, CFA
Director of Market Operations
Former fund manager, market analyst, and Goldman Sachs trader who now runs our pricing and auctions.
OUR TEAM
Why we started 1908
We spent seven years as buyers of in-force life insurance for a large private equity firm and saw how the incumbent channel worked: opaque, ineffective price discovery, selective disclosure to clients, and commissions that would be hard to defend in any other financial transaction. We knew top wealth advisors would never engage this market in a meaningful way until that changed, and we believed we could do it better.
In 2016, we set out to do just that. Changing an established market is hard, but rewarding and fun, and we get to work only with people we like and respect, personally and professionally, who share our values, and with whom we'd want to spend time, even if we weren't working together.
Scott Sanders
Founder
Seven years at a private equity buyer, transacting with firms like Apollo, Blackstone and DE Shaw, before founding 1908.
Mark Lapolla, CFA
Director of Market Operations
Former fund manager, market analyst, and Goldman Sachs trader who now runs our pricing and auctions.
OUR TEAM
Why we started 1908
We spent seven years as buyers of in-force life insurance for a large private equity firm and saw how the incumbent channel worked: opaque, ineffective price discovery, selective disclosure to clients, and commissions that would be hard to defend in any other financial transaction. We knew top wealth advisors would never engage this market in a meaningful way until that changed, and we believed we could do it better.
In 2016, we set out to. Changing an established market is hard, but rewarding. We work only with people we like and respect, personally and professionally, who share our values, and whom we'd want to spend time with even if we weren't working together.
Scott Sanders
Founder
Seven years at an private equity buyer, transacting with firms like Apollo, Blackstone and DE Shaw, before founding 1908
Mark Lapolla, CFA
Director of Market Operations
Former fund manager, market analyst, and Goldman Sachs trader who now runs our pricing and auctions
AS HEARD ON THE SMARTER PLANNER PODCAST
From Surrender to Sale: The Game-Changing Approach to Life Settlements
Scott walks through the three paths for a policy a client no longer needs (lapse, surrender or sale) and how properly structured competitive auction gets clients the most for it.
With host Belle Osvath, CFP® · January 2025
AS HEARD ON THE SMARTER PLANNER PODCAST
From Surrender to Sale: The Game-Changing Approach to Life Settlements
Scott walks through the three paths for a policy a client no longer needs (lapse, surrender or sale) and how properly structured competitive auction gets clients the most for it.
With host Belle Osvath, CFP® · January 2025
WHO WORKS WITH US
Trusted by the country's leading wealth firms
Among our clients are many of the most highly-regarded HNW/UHNW RIAs, Trust companies, and private banks in the country. We also serve a rapidly growing universe of principled, Best Interest-oriented life insurance professionals, especially among those with CFP and ChFC designations, as well as Trust Companies, trustees, and wirehouse advisors.
We keep our clients' names confidential, just as we would yours. But we're glad to put you in touch with advisors at peer firms who have worked with us.
6 of 10
top 10 RIAs (Barron's 2025)
12 of 50
top 50 RIAs (Barron's 2025)
10+
BGAs/IMOs and life insurance advisors
100%
repeat clients
$32B RIA
$500B wealth arm of $1.8T asset manager
$390B RIA
$10B RIA
$195B RIA
Multiple Trust companies and private banks
AMONG OUR CLIENTS
DIFFERENT VALUES AND APPROACH
Changing the process for advisors, improving outcomes for clients
The definition of a “life settlement” isn’t the problem. It’s the incumbent channel’s execution of the transaction — the negotiation theater and opacity, the prolonged calendar and outsized commissions — that has loaded the term with associations that don’t match what you do for your clients.
Our approach and results are different enough that we’d rather describe what we actually do. So we talk about selling, monetizing, or maximizing liquidity from a policy that no longer justifies its cost: the same vocabulary you already use for every other asset in a client’s portfolio.
It’s also rarely a standalone decision. As your clients age and their needs change, this is one piece of the financial and estate plan you already manage for them, not a separate transaction outside it.
DIFFERENT VALUES AND APPROACH, SO DIFFERENT WORDS
Changing the process, improving outcomes
The definition of a “life settlement” isn’t the problem. It’s the incumbent channel’s execution of the transaction — the negotiation theater and opacity, the selective disclosures and price distorting arrangements with some capital sources, the prolonged calendar and outsized commissions — that has loaded the term with associations that don’t match what you do for your clients.
Our approach and results are different enough that we’d rather describe what we actually do. So we talk about selling, monetizing, or maximizing liquidity from a policy that no longer justifies its cost: the same vocabulary you already use for every other asset in a client’s portfolio.
It’s also rarely a standalone decision. As your clients age and their needs change, this is one piece of the financial and estate plan you already manage for them, not a separate transaction outside it.
$0
Surrender Value
$713,000
Net proceeds
$770,000
Gross winning bid
FINANCIAL PLAN
Dividing assets in a divorce
A 75-year-old physician needed to split marital assets, including a $3.15M GUL with no cash value.
$1,000,000
Surrender Value
$7,100,000
Net proceeds
$7,500,000
Gross winning bid
ESTATE PLANNING
Rebalancing a policy portfolio
Insurance advisor to MFO suggested that Trustee consider sale of GUL policies on healthy 92-year old father to redeploy proceeds.
$0
Surrender Value
$439,000
Net proceeds
$475,000
Gross winning bid
BUSINESS PLANNING
Sold business, buy/sell policy
After selling his business and a treatable cancer diagnosis, a 67-year-old no longer needed a $1.5M buy/sell policy, converted from term.
RESULTS IN CONTEXT
Undertaken to support a change in the plan that you lead
A common misconception 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, in reality, only a small portion of the transactions that we undertake.
With your knowledge of clients' planning objectives and life events that change the utility of a life insurance policy and/or liquidity preference, you are uniquely positioned to identify those instances that considering the option to sell it might make sense, just by asking and knowing what role the policy is playing in your clients’ plans.
What Our Clients Say
"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 $350B 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."
Head of Insurance Solutions
$190 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
"Your bids are much higher and you deliver them for our clients *months* faster than we have from other firms that we used in the past."
Director of Risk Advisory
$585B AUM wealth management arm of $1.8T asset manager
"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 $350B 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)
$30 billion RIA
OUR DIFFERENCE
Higher winning bids, by design. In weeks, not months.
We run a single blind, best-and-final auction among a select group of credible institutional buyers. With no rounds of back-and-forth, each buyer has to bid its true ceiling, not an opening offer to see who else is participating and then the buyer with the highest value not anchoring its bid to the second highest bidder. That one design choice produces higher bids, and produces them in weeks rather than months.
WHY SPEED MATTERS
Multi-round negotiations commonly run 90 days or more, and the whole time your client is left wondering whether the policy is worth selling, and for how much. One round means a clear answer in days, so your client can decide with confidence and move on.
1.3x
higher winning bids
on average, vs. broker-led sales
1.8x
more to your client
on average, net of fees
15days
to actionable bids
two-week review, one best and final round
OUR DIFFERENCE
Higher winning bids, by design. In weeks, not months.
We run a single blind, best-and-final auction among a select group of credible institutional buyers. With no rounds of back-and-forth, each buyer has to bid its true ceiling, not an opening offer to see who else is participating and then the buyer with the highest value not anchoring its bid to the second highest bidder. That one design choice produces higher bids, and produces them in weeks rather than months.
WHY SPEED MATTERS
Multi-round negotiations commonly run 90 days or more, and the whole time your client is left wondering whether the policy is worth selling, and for how much. One round means a clear answer in days, so your client can decide with confidence and move on.
1.3x
higher winning bids
on average, vs. broker-led sales
1.8x
more to your client
on average, net of fees
15days
to actionable bids
two-week review, one best and final round
A PROCESS THAT YOU CAN STAND BEHIND
When a policy no longer fits the plan, a sale belongs in the conversation.
We start where you do: with your client's needs. When those change, many policies are simply lapsed or surrendered. Fewer than 10% of consumers know a sale is an option, so it is worth raising before that decision is made.
FIRST: HAS THE NEED, FUNDING CAPACITY, OR LIQUIDITY PREFERENCE CHANGED?
-
The policy's original purpose is gone: estate tax, a business, protection
-
Premiums have become harder to justify or afford
-
Trust liquidity diminished relative to premium load as insured ages
-
Alternative strategies preferred; use of proceeds or obviated premiums
-
Policy owner desires liquidity that a sale could generate
-
Change in health that creates value that owner would like to access
THEN: WILL THE MARKET VALUE IT?
Insured
72+ male/74+ female
if standard health, younger if less healthy
Policy
Any UL product
single life or joint, UL/GUL/VUL/IUL or convertible term
Size
$500K - $50M
smaller or larger still work, but not competitive auction
A PROCESS THAT YOU CAN STAND BEHIND
We deliver confidence.
10+ capital sources reached | Bids received in 80% of auctions | 15 days to actionable bids | 60 days to funding
You should be able to raise a sale with a client confidently and explain the outcome without hedging. Our process makes that easy. It draws on our experience as capital markets professionals and seven years as institutional buyers, it is built on our values, and it has been refined over ten years alongside the country’s most highly regarded wealth management firms, with full transparency and straight answers at every step.
A real auction
Single round, blind best-and-final auction ensures that the winning bidder has bid to their true value, not just high enough to beat the second highest - and in days, not weeks or months.
Full transparency
You're in the ShareFile bid room with us. Every interaction and every bid is logged, with a complete audit trail, not relying on our characterizations of demand.
Only credible counterparties
We engage only those Providers and capital partners whose business practices are aligned with our values and processes and who we are comfortable putting across the table from you.
Client privacy
Every file is redacted of all personally identifiable information and shared only in our secure, encrypted ShareFile bid room with only highly vetted buyers.
Client privacy
Every file is redacted of all personally identifiable information and shared only in our secure, encrypted ShareFile bid room with only highly vetted buyers.
Only credible counterparties
We engage only those Providers and capital partners whose business practices are aligned with our values and processes and who we are comfortable putting across the table from you.
Full visibility
You're in the ShareFile bid room with us. Every interaction and every bid is logged, with a complete audit trail, not relying on our characterizations of demand.
A real auction
Single round, blind best-and-final auction ensures that the winning bidder has bid to their true value, not just high enough to beat the second highest bid - and in days, not weeks or months.
A PROCESS THAT YOU CAN STAND BEHIND
We deliver confidence.
10+ capital sources reached | Bids received in 80% of auctions | 15 days to actionable bids | 60 days to funding
You should be able to raise a sale with a client confidently and explain the outcome without hedging. Our process makes that easy. It draws on our experience as capital markets professionals and seven years as institutional buyers, it is built on our values, and it has been refined over ten years alongside the country’s most highly regarded wealth management firms, with full transparency and straight answers at every step.
01
Doing the right thing
Which approach would your client choose if you showed them the options? Which would you choose for a family member?
02
Credibility with advisors
Our process is one that fee-only and fiduciary advisors already trust. Bringing it to a shared client strengthens those relationships.
03
Comparable compensation
Our fee is lower, but our winning bids are higher, so your compensation over multiple engagements is comparable to what you earn with a broker.
FOR LIFE INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS
A fit for principled life insurance agents, too
You already know life settlements. The question is, though, knowing the differences, which solution would you undertake for a family member and which approach you want to bring to the RIAs, trust officers and family offices you work alongside? A growing number of the most conscientious, principled and Best Interest-minded producers, especially those with CFP and ChFC designations, are choosing ours.
If that’s how you want to practice, we’d love to talk.
“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.”
UHNW Insurance Advisor, $350B RIA
FOR LIFE INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS
A better fit for principled life insurance agents
You already know life settlements. The question is, though, knowing the differences, which solution would you undertake for a family member and which approach you want to bring to the RIAs, trust officers and family offices you work alongside? A growing number of the most conscientious, principled and Best Interest-minded producers, especially those with CFP and ChFC designations, are choosing ours.
If that’s how you want to practice, we’d love to talk.
“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.”
UHNW Insurance Advisor, $350B RIA
01
Doing the right thing
Which approach would your client choose if you showed them the options? Which would you choose for a family member?
02
Credibility with advisors
Our process is one that fee-only and fiduciary advisors already trust. Bringing it to a shared client strengthens those relationships.
03
Comparable compensation
Our fee is lower, but our winning bids are higher, so your compensation over multiple engagements is comparable to what you earn with a broker.