LISA's 18th Annual Fall Life Settlement Conference a Resounding Success

The Life Insurance Settlement Association's (LISA) 18th Annual Fall Conference in Orlando last week was a resounding success. Attendees from the U.S. and abroad heard presentations focused on the theme: "Mainstreaming Life Settlements from Consumers to Investors." Speakers and attendees participated in LISA's focus on re-energizing the organic life settlement market for policyholders and capital market investors. Reflecting renewed activity and innovation in the life settlement market, the conference boasted the largest attendance at any life settlement conference since 2009.

LISA kicked off the conference with an exciting presentation on the "boom" of the Baby Boom generation, followed by sessions on how social media and digital market innovations are generating greater awareness and activity among seniors and insurance and financial advisors.

Also at the conference, LISA announced the establishment of the Life Insurance Settlement Center for Education, which will be the leading authority on life settlement education offering CE and CLE accredited courses for seniors' financial advisors, attorneys, insurance producers and settlement brokers, as well as general education and outreach to seniors about life settlements.

Investors in attendance heard about new developments in underwriting, the ever-changing dynamics between brokers, providers and investors, and recent developments in law and regulation that will assist in attracting new capital to the life settlement market. Investors themselves served on several panels, discussing domestic and foreign opportunities for new capital and the attractive returns and advantages life settlement investments offer as an asset class.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens was featured on a panel discussing recent and future regulatory developments impacting life settlements. He reported that the life settlement market continues to offer tremendous value for consumers and high rates of compliance and consumer protection by licensed life settlement companies. The conference also featured a panel dedicated to the "emerging market" of seniors assigning their life insurance policies to obtain long-term care benefits.

LISA Chairman, Alan H. Buerger, CEO of Coventry First, said: "We wanted this conference to be different from anything we'd done in the past. We wanted to highlight how modern trends and techniques are already bringing the life settlement market forward again. Social media is a tremendously valuable and necessary component to educating the Baby Boom generation about life settlements. Unlocking the value of life insurance for more seniors is good for consumers and, in turn, will be good for institutional investors."
Darwin Bayston, LISA's President, said: "The goal of this conference was to demonstrate how the life settlement market has become more sophisticated and innovative and is recovering and moving forward from the downturn of the market and the global economy. Attendees confirmed that we achieved our goal and judged the conference as very valuable and the best conference in recent memory."

LISA announced that its 2013 Annual Spring Conference will be held in Las Vegas in May and that the 2013 Fall Conference will be back in Orlando.