Our team
We met in 2009, while establishing an institutional life settlement fund in partnership with the oldest life settlement provider in the country. As tall a challenge as it is to raise several hundred million dollars of equity capital from private equity, various endowments, UHNWI's, and pension funds was, we came to realize that it was even actually more difficult to deploy it - because of the inefficient, and, in our view, unethical and unprofessional, manner in which life settlement brokers conduct business, which keeps most fiduciary and fiduciary-minded advisors from engaging the market. And we knew how badly flawed their price discovery process actually was.
So, we took that frustration and channeled it into designing something better. Into solving a problem and fundamentally rethinking how price discovery gets done in this market. And substantively engaging the best, most conscientious wealth advisors and life insurance professionals, not paying lip service to “transparency” and “fiduciary responsibility”, while conducting wholly ineffective, inefficient price discovery. But to do things very differently - and to benefit all stakeholders in the process.
And to simply do things right (and to have fun while doing it!).
Our team
We met in 2009, while establishing an institutional life settlement fund in partnership with the oldest life settlement provider in the country. As tall a challenge as it was to raise several hundred million dollars of equity capital from private equity, various endowments, UHNWI's, and pension funds was, it was even actually more difficult to deploy it - because of the inefficient, and, in our view, unethical and unprofessional, manner in which life settlement brokers conduct business, limiting to degree to which fiduciary and fiduciary-minded advisors from would the market.
And, as buyers, we knew how badly flawed their price discovery process actually was, because although we did not win every policy that they presented to us, many times that we did win, after weeks and weeks of bidding, incrementally increasing our bid, we won before we had actually reached our max value for the policy.
So, we took that frustration and channeled it into designing something better. Into solving a problem and fundamentally rethinking how price discovery gets done in this market. And substantively engaging the best, most conscientious wealth advisors and life insurance professionals, not paying lip service to “transparency” and “fiduciary responsibility”, while conducting wholly ineffective, inefficient price discovery and then charging otherwise wholly egregious commissions. But to do things very differently - and to benefit all stakeholders in the process.
And to simply do things right (and to have fun while doing it!).
Click on each photo, if you would like to read the bios and contact information.
Founder
Scott Sanders
Director of Market Operations
Mark Lapolla, CFA
Director of Client Relations
Colin Widen
RIA Operations Consultant
Harlan Graiser
Scott Sanders
Founder
scott@1908advisors.com | 404.285.3454
Scott founded 1908 Advisors in 2016, after spending the preceding seven years with a large institutional buyer of in-force life insurance owned by Redbird Capital Partners.
His industry experience prior to founding 1908 ranges from policy-level underwriting, portfolio analysis, and capital commitment, to trading and leading portfolio engagements and transactions with other leading private equity firms in the industry (e.g. DE Shaw, Apollo, Blackstone, TPG, FlexPoint Ford, and others) and various endowments, pension funds, and UHNW investors.
Scott began his career as a marketing rep for IBM before transitioning to a corporate finance role within IBM Credit Corporation and then consulting with IBM's largest financial services customers. He later led an internal consulting team that worked with senior leadership in the Personal Systems Division (PSD) on various initiatives. He then transitioned to strategy consulting for several years, with clients including Century Telephone, UPS, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and John Deere, before, finally into private equity and life settlements.
He has served on several non-profit boards, including as Chairman for both Embraced Atlanta and the North Georgia Chapter of Make A Wish and has been a volunteer with Special Olympics for more than 25 years. He is an avid cyclist and enthusiastic (but slow) runner, completing the Chicago Marathon twice, running to raise money for the Pat Tillman Foundation.
Scott earned an MBA at Northwestern University (Kellogg) and a BA in economics and math at the University of Minnesota.
Mark Lapolla, CFA
Director of Market Operations
mark@1908advisors.com | 770.363.2142
For 10+ years, Mark was the man behind Sixth Man Research, which provided capital market and portfolio strategy research to a broad array of institutional investors and investment banks.
He is credited with correctly forecasting the timing and magnitude of the global financial crisis (2007—2009), the end of the global growth paradigm (2011), the peak of the EU sovereign debt crisis (2012), and the persistency of low-interest rates and nominal growth still present today.
Prior to launching Sixth Man Research in 2007, Mark was the Managing Partner of Petros Capital, a long/short equity hedge fund he co-founded. Previously, Mark was a senior associate at Friess (managers of the Brandywine mutual funds) where he directly managed $1.5 billion, in addition to having oversight responsibility for an additional $5 billion of the firm’s $15 billion under management. Mark began his career as an equity trader at Goldman Sachs and began managing institutional capital in 1990.
In 2010, Mark conceptualized and launched a hedge fund focused on life settlements. He spearheaded several capital raises totaling $36 million and served on its Board of Directors, now owned by RedBird Capital Partners.
Mark earned a BA in Economics from the College of William & Mary and earned his CFA designation in 1993.
Colin Widen
Director of Client Development
colin@1908advisors.com | 774.454.2620
Colin's 40-year capital markets career spans the gamut from risk arbitrage trading to advising family offices on alternative asset allocations and direct investments in privately-held businesses.
After his start as a trader, Colin opened Mabon Nugent's Boston office where he managed institutional equity sales. He then joined Lehman Brothers as its global account manager for Boston where he also spearheaded their efforts to capitalize on the emerging hedge fund and private equity markets.
Colin's focus on advisory services began in 2004 when he joined Deutsche Bank. With the broad mandate of delivering alternative asset services to middle-market clients, Colin led a team helping family offices access hedge funds, structured products, and insurance-based collateral notes--which was his introduction to the life settlements market. Most recently, Colin provided investment banking services to emerging life sciences companies and the institutions that invest in them.
Colin earned an M.S. in Accounting from the New York Institute of Finance, and a BS in Economics, with honors, from Amherst College.
Harlan Graiser, CFP ®
Marketing Representative
Harlan became a part-time marketing representative for 1908 Advisors after he retired in 2022 from SignatureFD, a $7B RIA based in Atlanta & Charlotte. During his 16 years at SignatureFD, he was the ‘advisor’s advisor’ for client matters pertaining to life, DI, and LTC insurance. Harlan’s decision to affiliate with 1908 Advisors was based on his very positive experience when using them on a handful of life settlement cases before he retired. In his current role, he educates advisors about the life settlement option in various client situations and serves as a liaison to 1908 when evaluating a potential life settlement transaction.
Harlan’s initial career was as an engineer for Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble and Bausch & Lomb. He then changed fields and became a management consultant with firms such as Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Organizational Dynamics Inc. For his third career he dove headlong into insurance and financial services, obtaining an agent license in 2002 and earning a CFP® designation in 2008.
Harlan earned an MBA-Finance from Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH) and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY).