Frequently asked questions

Treyled helps clients and advisors understand life settlement options and maximize client policy values.

What is a Life Settlement?

Although business models vary, in a typical scenario, a policyholder (whether an individual, trust or entity owner) sells an existing policy to a life settlement provider who facilitates transactions for private investment funds or other institutional investors, which hold the policy until maturity, pay the premiums and collect the net death benefit. These funds or other investors may also sell the policy to other private investment funds or institutional investors. Although the policyholder may contact and offer to sell the policy to a life settlement provider or other purchaser directly, direct sales usually do not result in best pricing for the policyholder who is generally uninformed regarding the design of the contract and the potential value of the policy in the broader life settlement market. Considering the significant expertise required to properly understand, market and consummate sales of existing insurance contracts to life settlement providers, policyholders are well advised to initiate these transactions by contacting an experienced and qualified life settlement broker or their insurance agent, estate planning attorney, tax advisor and/or financial advisor who, in turn, can retain an experienced and qualified life settlement broker to assist the policyholder and any members of the advisory team in the sale of the policy.

Why Consider a Life Settlement?

Historically, a life insurance policy which was no longer needed, desired or advisable, whether because the policy became unaffordable or the goals and objectives of the insured, family or other policy owner changed, had two options: to let the policy lapse or surrender it to the issuer for its cash surrender value. The emergence of a secondary market for existing life insurance policies provides a third alternative: to sell the policy to a third party for less than the net death benefit but more than the cash surrender value. Such transactions are referred to as life settlements. The value of a particular life settlement depends on various factors, including the insured's life expectancy and the nature and terms of the policy.

Why Treyled Life Settlements?

TLS helps clients and advisors understand life settlement options and maximize client policy values in a space that has traditionally lacked sophistication, professionalism, education and transparency. Treyled discovered that throughout the settlement market, clients and their advisors, for whatever reason, remain largely uninformed about their life settlement options to the advantage of purchasers. Treyled Life Settlements is working to close that information gap. In recent years, Treyled has developed an independent life settlement brokerage process and become a go-to life settlement brokerage company for helping policyholders and their advisors find life settlement solutions. Treyled Life Settlements works seamlessly with policyholders and their insurance agents, estate planning attorneys, tax advisors, and financial advisors to help unlock the maximum value for their life insurance policies previously thought lost, sidelined or inaccessible during the insured's lifetime. Working through Treyled Life Settlements can generate immediate opportunities to rescue policies in jeopardy of lapsing or becoming costly because of unrealized illustrations, and Treyled Life Settlements can work with the insured and/or advisory team to achieve more efficient and effective estate and financial planning and asset management. The option to settle an unneeded, underperforming, unwanted or poorly designed life insurance policy may be consistent with the policyholder's current personal, business and family goals and objectives and should be explored as part of the regular policy due diligence for contracts that may be marketable.

What is the Opportunity?

To many insurance advisors, life settlements may have seemed taboo largely because of fears of insurance carrier backlash or prior lack of regulation, but a life settlement should be considered as a viable option when conducting a policy audit. With (i) new tax law changes clarifying that a seller's cost basis in a life insurance policy is the aggregate premiums paid, less amounts received, without reduction for costs of insurance, (ii) significant increases in the lifetime estate and gift tax exemptions, (iii) increased competition in the settlement marketplace and (iv) regulations in 43 of the 50 United States, a life settlement is as seller friendly as it has ever been. Private investment and institutional funds are investing in the purchase of life insurance contracts to achieve uncorrelated returns as compared with traditional asset classes. The industry competition and wide purchaser field, along with a prolonged low interest rate environment, has forced these investors to target lower returns, increasing the amount these private and instiutitonal investors are willing to pay for contracts and the overall value of life insurance policies in the marketplace.Individuals who are 70 years and older comprise a huge demographic of our population. These older Americans are outliving their life insurance policies, as many policies were initially designed and funded to last only until age 85 or 90 or may have otherwise underperformed relative to their original illustrations. Most policyholders and their advisors may not be familiar with the concept of a life settlement. However, Treyled has developed a value-added specialized auction process that focuses on transparency and maximizes policy values.

What Types of Life Insurance Policies Qualify for a Life Settlement?

Individual and second-to-die universal life, indexed universal life, variable universal life, and convertible term life insurance policies typically qualify for life settlements. While private placement life insurance ("PPLI") and whole life policies normally are not candidates for a life settlement, it may be advisable to evaluate a life settlement before allowing one of these policies to lapse or surrender.