Life Insurance Settlement Association annual conference highlights regulatory issues

Participants urged to get more involved in lobbying efforts at statewide level in order to be able to play active role in setting life insurance settlement policies. Increased role of foreign entities and pension funds were also noted.

Activities at the 2009 Life Insurance Settlement Association's conference showed that people who special in senior life settlements of insurance are not afraid of discussing possible industry regulations. In fact, one of the recurring themes of the conference - which took place in October in Orlando, Fla. - was that industry lobbying groups need to take a more active role in getting ahead of legislation to ensure that any new laws passed are sensible and not needlessly complex to implement.

According to Life Settlement Review, many life settlement brokers are concerned with the speed that regulations are being debated by state governme

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nts around the nation with concerns growing that many of these rules are being passed in haste without forethought and planning. One example given was a recent law in West Virginia that was passed in just 48 hours, along with other cases in Nevada, Oregon and Vermont.

Stephanie Brensilver of Credit Suisse's regulatory execution team noted that differences in life insurance settlement regulations in various states can also be a complicating factor. One example she gave was that some states require both an individual broker and entity making a senior life settlement to be licensed, while other states only require licensing of the individual.

Another potentially complicating factor is foreign competition. Industry experts at the conference pointed out that both foreign companies and pension funds are becoming increasingly active in life insurance settlements despite their relatively complex nature.

Malcolm Kinser is a writer specializing in life insurance policies and tactics. His work has been featured in print and online publications. He currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana.