Growing the market within the life insurance market

The Life Settlements market is a fast-growing market, because it has a lot of untapped potential.

During the period 1995 to 2008, life insurance sold to individuals totaled over $20.9 trillion and the lapsed and surrendered life insurance over that same period totaled $9.3 trillion, or about 45% of the total sales. The total outstanding life insurance policies held as settlements approximated $31 billion as of 2008¹. That is a mere 0.26% of the estimated total $10.25 trillion of individual in-force life insurance².

The annual face amount of life insurance policies settled in the secondary market is expected to average $21 billion over the next ten years, reaching $31 billion by 2017³. The market is projected to grow at 11.5% annually in the next five years and then slow to 8.2% annually the following five years⁴. The growth of this market is expected to be driven by expanded investment criteria including longer life expectancies, smaller policy face values and modified settlement structures, and overall increasing market demand for life insurance backed securities.

^{1 Conning Research & Consulting, Inc. (2009). Life Settlements, It’s A Buyer’s Market for Now.
2 American Council of Life Insurers: Life Insurers Fact Book 2009.
3 Conning Research & Consulting, Inc. (2008). Life Settlements: New Challenges to Growth.
4 Conning Research & Consulting, Inc. (2008). Life Settlements: New Challenges to Growth.}