RSS feedlife settlements
’Death bonds’ unique risks
Victoria’s the Age newspaper on Wednesday published an interesting investigation into a bad life settlements investment by the Australian state’s quasi-SWF.
It alleges that it uncovered:
details of a new $500 million loss that was only entered in the corporation’s accounts at the end of last year and the mistakes that led to that loss – the lack of due diligence,
Macabre Mark Twain mathematics
“The Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.”
– Mark Twain
The Wall Street Journal has a further news on Thursday from the grisly world of life settlements. These are transactions where a life insurance policy owner sells their policy,
The FSA is not a fan of life settlements
Add the UK’s financial services regulator to the cacophony of voices expressing concern about so-called life settlements.
First, a definition of the term, via Standard & Poor’s:
Life settlements,
Introducing, the death index
We’ve written about the rise of death bonds before.
That term relates to the secondary-market trading of life insurance policies and securitisation trends within the general life-settlement industry.
Deutsche funds hurt by rising life expectancies
Betting on life expectancy, as investors in so-called life settlements do, is fraught with risk – not least that people will live longer than models suggest they will.
Investors in two Deutsche Bank funds — db Kompass Life 1 and 2 – that invested in US life settlements have learnt this lesson to their cost.
People’s unwillingness to die on schedule hurting insurers, Moody’s says
The life settlement industry — with its focus on the acquisition and possible re-sale of certain kinds of life policies — is still in the very early stages of development, but it has been hit more than a few times by controversy and outright fraud.
More than you ever wanted to know about death bonds
If you’re not yet familiar with so-called life settlement securitisations – or death bonds – never fear. In a comprehensive primer released on Tuesday, Standard & Poor’s has answered all the questions you never thought to ask.
Death bonds are NOT the same as subprime CDOs, OK?
The Institutional Life Markets Association (ILMA) is none too impressed with the recent and critical focus on the possibility of securitising life settlements into what have become known as “death bonds”.