Found Money - Sell Your Life Insurance Policy?

Many of you who are at or near retirement have not fared well during the past six months. Many market-based portfolios have dipped by as much as 50% or more since this last year. Retirees who were counting on those portfolios to provide retirement income are now asking themselves if they will have enough cash to live out their lives in comfort. These are real concerns for many retirees who have seen their hard-earned savings evaporate under the pressure of a collapsing economy. Will you have time to recover what was lost? Should you keep your money in the market since you've already lost so much? Will you have to cut back on your lifestyle and future plans? These questions and others are keeping many seniors awake at night. However, one solution has appeared on the horizon that might just be your saving grace - your life insurance policy.

Several months back, I wrote about a new asset class called Life Settlements. The following is an excerpt from that article:

"This new asset class provides the potential for handsome returns while giving the investor a safe, non-correlated investment alternative. Until recently, there was no way for an individual investor to participate in this asset class. Now, there are companies in the marketplace who will sell fractional ownership in life settlement investments for as little as $50,000. What are life settlements anyway? A life settlement is simply the sale of an existing life insurance policy by a terminally ill or elderly person to another party. The price of the policy is negotiated and sold by the owner at a discount to the face amount. The purchaser then collects the full amount paid out under the policy. Life settlements are attractive to policy holders because they provide secondary market for life insurance policies that are no longer needed or wanted. Investors are attracted to life settlements because they offer the opportunity for potentially high returns that are not tied to stock or bond markets, interest rates, or business cycles."

The companies I mentioned in the excerpt above are willing to pay you good money for the right to purchase your life insurance benefits. They are willing to pay you cash now for the right to collect your policy when it matures. For insureds who meet a specific set of criteria, these settlement companies may offer you as much as 50% or more for your future death benefit in cash now! That is money you can put in your pocket to supplement your retirement or make up for market losses. So, rather than continuing to pay on that policy you can no longer afford or no longer need, you can sell it to willing buyers for a percentage of the death benefit.

These types of arrangements are not for everyone and having adequate representation as the seller is important. However, for the right person, a life settlement could be just the ticket to providing much needed cash in your golden years. Call CFS today for a free evaluation of your life insurance policy and to see if your policy qualifies for a settlement.