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Life settlements can be a viable option for seniors willing to exchange their life insurance policy for immediate cash. A life settlement is the sale of an existing life insurance policy for a lump sum of money. It allows policyholders to access the fair market value of their life insurance by selling their policies and receiving payments greater than the cash surrender value.

Technically, a life settlement contract allows you to sell your insurance policy to a third party in exchange for a reduced amount of the face value. This is possible because a life insurance policy is actually property, like a car, house, stocks and bonds that can be legally sold. A life settlement essentially lets you extract value today from an asset that is generally thought to only have a benefit when you die. Typically, life settlement transactions involve life insurance policies of a large face amount; ‘key-person’ coverage or corporate-owned life insurance; or policies representing excess coverage that is no longer needed.

Here’s how a life settlement works: When a life settlement company buys your life insurance policy, it pays you a percentage of the policy’s face value. Then the life settlement company becomes the new beneficiary of the policy at maturation. As such, it is responsible for all paying all future premiums and collects the entire death benefit when the insured dies.

A Growing Industry

With a life settlement, you can receive a large sum of cash in exchange for your insurance policy while you’re still alive. This eliminates premium payments, accommodates the changing needs of your dependents and provides greater financial flexibility.

Life settlements can also be used for charitable giving. Complex estate and tax planning strategies can apply when using life settlements in a planned giving program. But here’s how this works in simplest terms: You donate your life insurance policy to a charitable organization, which immediately sells the policy for a lump sum of cash via a life settlement.

These and other benefits are making life settlements an attractive option for seniors with unwanted/unneeded insurance policies. Consequently, the life settlement industry has seen significant growth in recent years. A study by Conning & Co. Research found that senior citizens owned approximately $500 billion worth of life insurance in 2003, of which $100 billion was owned by seniors eligible for life settlements. Since 2003, more and more of these eligible senior clients have sold their policies and helped the market increase.

Separate research by the University of Pennsylvania’s business school found that life settlement providers paid approximately $340 million to consumers for their underperforming life insurance policies, an opportunity that was not available to them just a few years before. "We estimate that life settlements, alone, generate surplus benefits in excess of $240 million annually for life insurance policyholders who have exercised their option to sell their policies at a competitive rate

Selling Your Policy

," according to the research.

You could be a prime candidate if you are of retirement age, have paid off your mortgage and other debts, and no longer require the financial protection of life insurance. The amount you receive will depend on your age, health, death benefit, and the number of years your policy has been in force.

Seniors with the greatest chance of selling their policies are those that are older than 65 years of age, have a calculated life expectancy of more than two years (but less than 10 years) and may have experienced a health change that has led to their insurance premiums increasing. Depending on the policy holder’s life expectancy, just about any type of policy can be sold, including universal life, whole life and convertible term contracts. However, policies generally must be valued at least $100,000.

Determining whether to sell your life insurance policy is a purely personal decision. You might consider a life settlement under the following circumstances:

Your employment status has changed.

You need additional funds to pay medical/long-term care expenses.

Your insurance premiums are too expensive and you can no longer afford them.

You would like to implement a charitable or family gifting plan.

You are facing bankruptcy.

Consulting with an Advisor

Before you decide to sell your insurance policy, you should examine all the available options, advises the American Council of Life Insurers, a Washington D.C.- based trade group. And instead of going it alone, consult with a financial advisor who is familiar with life settlements. This could include account/CPA, lawyer (especially elder law attorney), financial/estate planner, certified senior advisor or charitable trust officers.

Additionally, you might consider working with a brokeralthough your financial advisor can submit your case to the life settlement company directly. However, in an industry where market value for life insurance policies may be unfamiliar, brokers typically do the best job of getting fair market value for policies. They submit life settlement cases and bids to multiple companies, which can facilitate negotiations between high bidders.

Keep in mind that life settlement companies are essentially investors that fund many transactions each year. They hold purchased policies as portfolio assets, rather than making them available to outside investors. They also have in-house compliance departments to carefully review transactions, and they are backed by institutional funds from a major bank.

Steps to Life Settlement Transactions
Wondering what happens during life settlement transactions? Here are the steps involved in the typical transaction:

Step 1: You consult with an advisor and decide to sell your policy.

Step 2: You and your advisor select a broker.

Step 3: The broker submits your case (and you provide a release for your medical information) to various companies.

Step 4: If your policy is eligible for a life settlement, providers send offers to the broker.

Step 5: You accept an offer and then complete the company’s closing package.

Step 6: The life settlement company places a cash payment in escrow and submits change of ownership forms to the insurance carrier.

Step 7: Once the paperwork is verified, the funds are transferred to you.

By: David Springer

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com David Springer is a consultant for Sovereign Funding Group. Sovereign Funding Group is an experienced, reputable company that offers convenient, no-risk services to help you with the selling of your deferred payments and business financing, including life settlements.

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Having had the experience of loosing my grandmother due to the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) I have been really reluctant to speak about my beloved grandmother’s condition for a long time with anyone else except her personal home nurse. This woman appeared to my child eyes as a representation of an angel, since she was able to take care of my grandmother who has always been taking care of me. Her love and devotion to her profession, made me consider her as the next Maria Teresa that one day I would proudly admit to have met.

Today, after conducting some research on the subject of nursing, I understood that a home nurse taking care of Alzheimer’s disease patient is a very difficult issue and it can be a huge burden. Especially if the nursing is offered by a close family member, this act of caring and love can become too hard for one to bear and can be too time consuming even for those we would love to take care of, like our parents. Thus, researching and finding a nursing home for those we love but sadly suffer from AD has to be a conscious decision.

By: Kadence Buchanan -

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Nursing, Health, and Fitness

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Do you, like many other Baby Boomers, now find yourself caring for aging parents or other older relatives or friends who have health problems, disabilities, or the need for assistance with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, and eating? If so, you are part of one fourth of American families who are caring for an older family member, an adult child with disabilities, or a friend. According to the AARP, you are one of more than 22.4 million Americans who are now caregivers to older adults, a number that has tripled in the last 10 years alone. The average amount of time these Americans spend on caregiving is about 20 hours per week with many of these hours spent in physically demanding work. With the life spans raising over the past century from 49 -77, some children are actually caring for invalid parents 20 years, longer than the parents spent raising them.

I would like to ask you a question? How is your own personal health? One third of caregivers describe their personal health as fair to poor, and many worry that they won’t outlive the person for whom they are caring. As you and other caregivers struggle to balance caregiving with other responsibilities, including full-time jobs and caring for children, constant stress can lead to "burnout" and health problems. You may feel guilty, frustrated, and angry from time to time, suffer from depression, and become ill easily yourself. Caring for even the most beloved parents can seem like a burden when your own health collapses from endless hours of caring for their needs.

For example, caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other kinds of dementia at home can be overwhelming. The caregiver must cope with declining abilities and difficult behaviors that affect even basic activities of daily living and often become hard to manage for both the care receiver and the caregiver. As the disease worsens, the care receiver usually needs 24-hour care.

In addition to the constant care required, caregivers of parents with this type of problem also suffer from the emotional pain of losing communication with parents who no longer recognize them. To sustain this, and other types of prolonged stress and care, you need to call upon other family members, friends, and neighbors for help. If other caregivers aren’t available to fill in, respite care services may be available in the community to help you. Respite care can be a good way for you to get a break (respite) from constant caregiving.

Some caregivers are still raising their own children and feel torn between the needs of their children and the needs of their parents. In fact, in this day of small families, many Americans may have more parents than children. They also feel torn between their own needs for work, vacations, privacy, hobbies, or friends and feelings of guilt, resentment, or even depression or martyrdom. Both aging parents and caregiver children lose independence and privacy. Even the most congenial relationships can suffer from these loses.

Here are some recommendations to help you take care of your own health:

Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water. Avoid sugars, fats, and salt. Include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Follow the guidelines of the government’s food pyramid for proper amounts and food types to include in your daily menu. Take a good multivitamin for extra protection.

Get plenty of rest and sleep, even if you have to enlist help to care for your parents while you rest. Spend some time unwinding and relaxing during the day as well.

Get regular, healthy exercise at least three days a week. Regular exercise not only reduces stress and improves health, but also produces endorphins, which add to a good feeling mood.

Keep your own health care up to date, including yearly checkups. If you experience negative feelings, get counseling from doctor or therapist, or share your feelings with good friends.

Speaking of friends, keep your social life active in order to stay connected with your community and to give an outlet for stress. Seek comfort and support in your faith-based group as well.

Remember you are not alone. Seek support groups for caregivers, especially if you are caring for a loved one with a disease. Look online for government or state supported groups and help departments. Find community support groups.

Make arrangements for your own vacations and retreats, for regrouping and refreshing yourself, your spouse, and your own children. Remember, you are not the only one affected by your live-in parent situation. Your entire family experiences changes and stresses along with you. Arrange for someone to stay with your parent and spend some time as a family away from home and those extra responsibilities.

Remind yourself of the care that your parent lavished on you as a child and how you felt about that parent then. Often, we get so busy that we forget how much we really love our parents, especially in the throes of caring for them. Try to revisit happier days with them and remind both them and yourself of those times. Bring out family pictures and relive happy days together.

If you are a caregiver, remember to care for your own health as well as that of your loved one. Seek comfort, help, time to refresh yourself, and regular exercise to ensure that you will remain able to give that care and still maintain your personal wellness.

Copyright 2006 Dr. Eileen Silva By: Eileen Silva 

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Eileen Silva, Ph.D., N.D. is a metabolic health balancing expert, talk show guest, and lecturer. Dr. Silva is also an individual, group, and corporate weight management consultant. Contact Dr. Silva at www.dreileensilva.com  

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