Life Settlement Awareness Month Starts
Even though it is a pretty thinly vailed month long advertsising campaign Life Settlement Solutions do put a lot of effort into these events. Being one of the largest and well known Providers in the industry they are certainly well qualified and knowledgable enough to take on the role of industry educator. There continues to be an increasing amount of interest from investors world wide in this asset class and it is indeed difficult to find efficient ways to get up to speed for investors so I applaud LSS for their efforts. While to some extent we are competitors the fact is that the biggest thing the industry needs right now is growth in capital and any efforts that hel;p that will be a boon to us all.
While the attractions of life settlements are strong to investors, the educational hump to get over is high. A non-correlated asset in these volatile times is very attractive and the lure of double digit returns is great, but investors have to understand the risks and that is where it can become very disconcerting. In this authors opinion this is where most of those in the industry in a position to educate and attract investors go off the tracks. I have attended dozens of summits, seminars and webinars hosted by many of the industries leading players and almost without exception the approach they use is completely counter productive. Let me set the scenario.
I am an investment advisor considering life settlements. I have read pretty much nothing but negative news in the general press, I have absolutely no understanding of life insurance, trusts, underwriting. But I really like this concept at a high level so i decide to go to a conference to hear some experts, fellow investors and understand the real risks. At this conference pretty much what I am subjected to is a torrent of why this is an inconceivably complex and risk fraught asset class and that if I don’t hire the guy on the panel to manage my investment I am inviting failure.
Every asset class has risk but wouldn’t it be more effective to demonstrate what a great profitable asset class it is to own with a risk profile that can be quantified and managed with an intelligent strategy. This industry is an immature one and no where is that more evident in the way that it markets and presents itself. I hope we will grow out of the self-serving advertorials that most seem to regress to and instead present a balanced but positive view of what is a powerful asset for the right investor.
I wish the team at LSS a lot of success with Life Settlement Awareness Month and sincerely hope they keep the self-serving rhetoric to a minimum present the facts.
