In the last couple years, US life settlement funds have made significant inroads into the UK. Last year, the UK’s securities regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), began approving life settlement funds—opening life settlements to UK investors.

In the US, life settlements expanded rapidly in the early 2000s from less than $1 billion in 1999 to about $12 billion (face value) in 2008. Life settlements then contracted between 2008 and 2010 to about $7 billion. Although estimates from before the financial crisis estimated that life settlements would increase to between $90 and 140 billion in face amount settled by 2016, it’s looking like those projections were far too ambitious.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of life settlements in Advisor’s Journal, see Life Settlements—Savior of Municipal Finance? (CC 11-97), Life Settlement Provider Accused of Falsifying Life Span Reports (CC 11-23).

For in-depth analysis of life settlements, see Advisor’s Main Library: A—Life Settlements—Introduction.