Cocktail Chatter

LISA Kicks Off 15th Annual Spring Conference

Picking up on Cocktail tweets available on Twitter from Jimsconn, here is a more complete version.

The Life Insurance Settlement Association, Orlando, Fla., is kicking off its 15th annual spring conference at the Sheraton Hotel in New York as we speak.

During the kick-off cocktail hour, Brian Staples of RIGHT, LLC., of Versailles, Ky., a former insurance regulator, thinks that life settlements could be the test case for the feds stepping in and establishing a federal regulatory system for life insurance and related products.

Doug Head, LISA’s executive director, did not directly discuss that possibility but did say that at least in terms of market conduct, the life settlement and life insurance industries should move in tandem. He says that he is not speaking about solvency.

Separately, cocktail chatter suggests that while business is still recovering from the worldwide financial meltdown, the life settlement industry is showing signs of new robustness. One attendee says that he is working on 2 securitizations: on rated and a second, unrated. Another attendee reports that life expectancy reports are on the upswing, and a third reports that while business isn’t what it was pre-worldwide meltdown, it is still strong and starting to gain momentum.

Daniel Goldman of All Financial Group, Stamford, Conn., promises that during a Friday May 8 session, he is going to have plenty to say on whether brokers share the same interest as the investors they service or whether investors should be going directly to life insurance contract owners. Stay tuned. Sounds interesting.