Sell My Life Insurance Policy

The ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., is considered a major victory for the life settlement industry.

Pisano issued a ruling denying review by the 3rd Circuit Court on the insurable-interest issue.

“The Court finds that Defendants have failed to satisfy their burden of demonstrating exceptional circumstances warranting a deviation from the ordinary rule of requiring a final judgment prior to seeking appellate review,” he stated.

Insurance Broker Publishes Book on Settlements

A longtime insurance broker and adviser has published a book on life settlements that he said is intended for prospective sellers of policies and their advisers as well life insurance and life settlement professionals.

Minnesota state officials have suspended the producer license of Michael Antonello for helping a man obtain $127.7 million in life insurance.

State officials charged Antonello with insurance fraud and forgery.

The case involves John Paulson of Minnesota, who was the defendant in a lawsuit decided last year that may have provided an important victory to the life settlement industry on the issue of insurable interest.

Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada had sued Paulson and others, including Antonello, seeking to rescind $17 million worth of life insurance. But a federal court judge in Minnesota threw out the case in December, upholding a magistrate judge’s decision.

The decision found that just because an insured plans to sell his policies when he bought them that it doesn’t necessarily mean that they lacked insurable interest, according to settlement industry representatives.

In the latest action by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the state said that Antonello helped Paulson buy 44 policies from October 1999 through December 2004 worth a total of $127.7 million.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed life settlement legislation today, becoming the third governor to approve a law regulating the market this legislative season.

SB 5195, which allows new policies to be sold after two years, is based largely on model legislation developed by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL). This is the first time the state of Washington has regulated the market. Until now, it had only regulated viaticals.

“This is an excellent bill,” said Doug Head, executive director of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA). “This is a first in the nation with mandated disclosure by insurers of the settlement option.”

The bill requires carriers to tell policyholders who are age 60 or older, or who are terminally or chronically ill, that they have other options if they’re thinking of surrendering or lapsing their policies or of seeking accelerated death benefits.

The law also requires the state insurance department to prepare a document to be used by insurers to let insureds know that alternatives exist to lapsing policies. The legislation doesn’t require insurers or the department to specifically mention life settlements, however.

Head said that Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is “very aware of the settlement option.”

In an April 9 letter to the governor, Kreidler said that “life insurance companies are required to disclose information about life settlements to policyholders, so that consumers are provided with fair and reliable information to use when making decisions regarding the disposition of their life insurance policies.”

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