Life Settlements as Part of Your Estate Plan

Estate planning attorneys often deal with life insurance policies that are no longer relevant, so life settlements are steadily gaining recognition. These estate planning attorneys have three priorities relating to life settlements: be confident with the market’s stability, acquire a better understanding of specific planning scenarios that will benefit your client, and avoid disappointing clients by setting realistic expectations.

For the first priority, the secondary market for life insurance is an increasing avenue for policy sellers trying to optimize the cash value of their unwanted life insurance policies. This market continues to gain recognition as it benefits customers who own static insurance assets. For the second priority, life insurance policies slowly become irrelevant to older clients’ estate plans. Consequently, estate planning attorneys will need to weigh their options and come up with the best solution for each individual client. Finally, for discussing life settlement options, attorneys will need to set realistic expectations for incorporating life settlements into a client’s estate plan because they can often be of great benefit.

See Jeff Hallman & Scott Thomas, Facilitating Life Settlements, Wealth Management, July 25, 2016.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.