Insurance

The life settlement market is benefiting from the fallout of the financial crisis. The supply side of the settlement industry is affected by consumers who have suffered through the crisis. Many are looking to raise cash through the sale of assets such as life insurance policies. Wall Street is pumping the demand side of the securitization market as investors seek alternative assets that are not correlated to the broader equity and fixed income markets. Source: Reuters Full Story

The prominent insurance firm Barry Kaye and Associates is accused of fraud in a case involving life settlements. The suit against the Boca Raton Florida firm alleges breach of contract, unjust enrichment, negligence, fraud and violation of Ohio's securities laws. Source: Investment News Full Story

The hedging programs used by insurance companies to support the guaranteed living benefit features in their variable annuity products have held-up well recently. Milliman reports that insurance companies supported 94% of their guarantees for the six month period ending in March 2009. The success of the hedging programs and the highly volatile capital market environment have encouraged many insurers to increase their hedging efforts. As reported in an earlier post , the increase in hedging...